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Sunday, March 30, 2014

How's this for an incomparable example of the famed British stiff upper lip?

The original idea behind Lunch with the FT was to rediscover the art of conversation in a convivial setting. Good food was essential, preferably washed down with a decent bottle of wine to elicit insights and the occasional indiscretion.

The combination led to some memorable encounters, notably a liquid lunch of biblical proportions at the Cafe Royal between Nigel Spivey, a Cambridge don and freelance FT writer, and Gavin Ewart, the 79-year-old poet.

The next day, Spivey received a call from Mrs Ewart, saying that her husband had returned home happier than she had seen him in a long time. "The second [thing] — and you are not to feel bad about this — is that he died this morning."
Financial Times editor Lionel Barber, in his introduction to

Talk about stiff upper lip!
  • A copy of this marvellous book has been placed in the Commits library.

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