Spectator's Notebook
suppose one can namedrop about a building
and an organisation as easily as about a person. So then Leslie Adrian's comment that in Norway all wines and spirits are bought by Virtmono- Pole reminds me that once I used to manage it. Never been so popular in my life. Never will be again.
The wines and spirits (this was 1945-6) had mostly been looted by the Germans from France. When we arrived, the 'Q' side inherited the Vinmonopolet. All I did was to sign the chits and fix the prices. One shilling for red and white wines,•three bob for a bottle of champagne, many of excellent vintage, five bob for most admirable brandy and the top price of 7s. 6d. for Cointreau and Benedictine, because I only had a few. thousand bottles of them. There were literally millions of bottles in that vast store in Oslo.
Of course the news gat round, but the prices held firm and the supplies lasted. Someone (1 suppose it was NAAFI) made an awful lot of Money. I didn't.
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