RUPERT HAMBRO Aconcert, 'Raise the Roof', at St Ja
RUPERT HAMBRO Aconcert, 'Raise the Roof', at St James's Church, Piccadilly, was held last month. We raised almost £30,000 with a musical evening and readings by Diana Rigg, Anthony Andrews, Edward Fox and John Standing. Edward read a piece about Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. He was a great benefactor of the poor in St James's and not only was Shaftesbury Avenue named after him, but the statue with its one foot pointing down the street of theatres, known to most of us as Eros, is in fact of the Earl. His successor who suffered the incongruous murder in the South of France, supposedly at the hands of his wife, would surely have horrified his forebear, who did so much good work in Piccadilly Circus.
The church itself which is thought to have been Christopher Wren's favourite, suffers from poor repair after receiving a direct hit from the Luftwaffe in 1942. The roof needs replacing and the spire, which is made of fibreglass and steel, leaks, and the electrics are a potential fire hazard. We are still a long way from reaching our appeal target of £3.5 million. We plan another concert next year.
ur daughter Flora married near Newbury last month. The wedding took place under brilliant sun and the church was filled with some of the loveliest singing imaginable, delivered by Sarum Voices. When Flora and I arrived at the door the congregation burst into applause, which we thought was for us but turned out to be for the singing. I had no idea what an extraordinary moment it is to pass one's child's hand across to the vicar and on to the young man who is to take responsibility for her for the rest of her life. How lucky we are that he is an exceptional young man.
We have had a small house just outside Marrakech for nearly ten years. It has been a source of great enjoyment, under cloudless skies with stunning views of the Atlas Mountains. When there at the end of last month, we became concerned about how the area is becoming massively overbuilt. Every corner seems to have a new development or hotel and it must be a concern how the local infrastructure will cope with so many new builds. The other worry is the impact of all this on the cost of living for the local people, who are still among the most lowly paid in the tourist world. The population has doubled to two million during our ownership and the locals' cost of living has also doubled during this period. I do hope that Marrakech does not take on the same characteristics as the Costa del Sol.
y wife and I have been to another two weddings of friends' children. The first in Germany with a Catholic service lasting two and a half hours in the small town of Mettlach, which is totally dominated by Villeroy and Boch, the very successful ceramic and bathroom product business. It was the home town of the bride, and her family entertained us royally after the wedding in a beautiful marquee for dinner and dancing. The second was in Majorca where we decided to go via Barcelona to meet two great friends and to give us the opportunity to see and learn more about that wonderful Spanish city, but we had the misfortune to fly BA. Not only did the plane leave annoyingly late, but on arrival we passed through passport control and were directed through a door to collect our luggage. After waiting what seemed a lifetime with the other passengers, we found that our luggage had been sent to a different terminal altogether. A ten-minute walk took us to the terminal where we were told we would find our suitcases. It necessitated passing security again. After taking off our shoes for the second time that day we found the reclaim area only to find there was no BA notice on the board. Eventually we found our suitcases circulating on a carousel marked only Iberia. One might have thought that the airline could have given guidance to their passengers before disembarking. Is it any wonder that they are leaving BA in droves for the two who really look after their passengers in the way the great Lord King did at BA, as easyJet and Virgin now do?
Barcelona is a city full of surprises and charm, from the extraordinary cathedral, designed by Gaudi in 1921 and still under construction, to the Picasso Museum. This progresses from very early landscapes, portraits and drawings, through his blue and rose periods, and on to the transformation to Cubism in the late 1920s. We caught the Catamaran ferry across to Palma which took four hours at a speed of 48 knots. We stayed in a most disappointing hotel, the Bendinat, but attended a wonderfully happy and very generous wedding and party at the house of the bride's parents. Our return journey was not perfect, as the sea was too rough for the ferries to sail, so easyJet flew us back to Gatwick and then on to Marseilles, to finally recover from all the nuptials and entertainment.
Areal bonus this month has been the discovery of a wonderful new completely natural breakfast cereal called LoveDean. It is full of slowly roasted jumbo oats, nuts and seeds sweetened only with honey. It is simply delicious! I found it at Partridges in the King's Road but believe it is now available in a number of other stores.
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