Morning:
8°c
Recession - what recession? Last week I went to two of the most lavish parties I've been to for many a moon (and believe me, I go to a lot of parties). More than 400 people attended the Orion Authors bash at the Victoria and Albert Museum to enjoy champagne and crab blinis. My glass was recharged throughout the night; I stumbled outside wondering if I had imagined it all.
You normally associate publishing parties with warm white wine and stale crisps. Orion CEO Peter Roche acknowledged the difficulties the book industry is facing but said: "This shouldn't mean joylessness and austerity, hence the party, and next year's party."
Now there's a man with vision. Some of his authors complained within my earshot that they wished Orion would spend as much on their advances as it had on the fizz.
The next day the French Ambassador, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, hosted the Duff Cooper prize in his residence in Kensington Palace Gardens and he served his guests the finest wines known to humanity. Well, Pol Roger champagne, since you ask, which was Winston Churchill's favourite tipple. We were drowning in the stuff.
There may be fewer publishing parties these days but when they do occur they happen with a bang - or to the sound of exploding corks. Churchill used to say of champagne: "In victory deserve it, in defeat need it." I'll drink to that. We need champagne now more than ever.
* IT was a joy to return home last week and find my entire house clad in scaffolding (a roof leak - don't ask). However, my delight was tempered the next day when I received a letter from the council stating that "the passage to the refuse area is unsafe due to scaffolding. Refuse collection will not be made from your storage area". As a result I now have to put my rubbish out on the pavement to await collection so that the binmen don't hurt themselves, poor poppets. But what about the hapless pedestrians who might trip up over my binbags? And should I stay indoors until the wonky (and unsafe) paving stone outside my house is replaced? I'm not sure that would wash with my boss.
* WHAT did Sir Peter Hall put in his children's tea? I want some of it. Rebecca Hall is currently the toast of the British film industry after her assured performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Meanwhile, her half-brother, Ed Hall, is consolidating his position as one of our most successful theatre directors. Last year he directed Greta Scacchi in the finest Deep Blue Sea I have seen on stage and last Saturday I went to his all-male production of The Merchant of Venice at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. It is not my favourite Shakespeare play but the imaginative set and inspired casting made me realise that this boy will run and run.
