Still Functioning – A Lecture and Dinner After

Thursday 8th December 2022

The National Garden Scheme Annual Lecture was given by Arabella Lennox Boyd. Lovely gardens she’s done but with that hard edge of the designer, always having to use ‘reliable’ plants i.e. a small range and few rarities. That Rose, ‘Felicia’, and certain kinds of Nepeta. But deeply lovely. Her main aim has been loveliness, not a profound insight into cultural identity or anything like that. An audience member asked her what to do about squirrels. She said, ‘Get a gun.’

Afterwards was the dinner for a selected few at Mossiman’s in Belgravia. I was taken by Royston King. The Chairman and his husband arrived by bicycle. Mary Berry was in Royal Blue with a sequin event at the shoulders. Luckily she never saw I was there so I escaped the special glare she saves for me, Adrian Edge. Mary Berry really doesn’t like me. I was placed with the Gardens Editor of Country Life. She turned out to be the wife of James Dellingpole, who promptly removed her just as the main course arrived. He said they had to catch a train to Northampton. What kind of conspiracy was that? I wonder. Nevertheless his wife clearly had no doubt of the train need. After all the courses, by contrast, Rachel da Thame left by taxi.

The talk was of how to save everything, including poultry. Money was swirling so you couldn’t tell if people were actually gardeners or had it done for them. The pinnacle though was that Royston was cornered by a Baroness who said, ‘You must get into the House of Lords and here’s how to do it.’ This Baroness, by remarkable coincidence, is a neighbour of the Gay Mother’s who once saw her in Church. Val wanted to be elevated to the House of Lords at one time. My worry is: will there be a House of Lords in the future to be elevated to? There’s talk of dreary elections to get into the Upper Chamber, which will never do. The whole point is elevation.

The Bicycle of either the Chairman or his Husband parked Outside Mossiman's for the After Dinner

The Bicycle of either the Chairman or his Husband parked Outside Mossiman’s for the After Dinner

Posted Thursday, December 8, 2022 under Adrian Edge day by day.

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