You learn something new...

I have a sore throat. It’s the height of summer and I have a sore throat. Admittedly it’s the height of a miserable, wet and wintery feeling summer but it stills feel wrong to have a sore throat. Grrr…

I just finished reading a book called “The Duchess of Bloomsbury” which is the follow on from 84 Charing Cross Road. I only read it because both books were in the same volume, but actually it was a pleasant read. It was about an American author’s first ever visit to London and whilst it wasn’t meant to be a guide to London I did come across some things that struck me. First that when Franklin D Roosevelt died the UK government decided to honour him with a statue in Grosvenor Square. They wanted to do it by public subscription and each individual contribution was limited to one shilling so that everyone could subscribe. They decided to keep it open for as long as was needed to raise the money via this method. They raised the money in 72 hours. Can you imagine anyone now who if the government decided to do that we could raise money in such a short amount of time just based on small public contributions? Surely unthinkable now.

I also read that after the war there were a lot of books that booksellers wanted to get rid of because they didn’t have enough shelf space for them, so hundreds of books were thrown into open bomb craters in London’s streets. They were then built over, so there must be lots of books buried under some buildings in London, although presumably unreadable by now.

I watched “Who Do You Think You Are?” last night (which is a programme about celebrities looking into their family history in case you have never heard of it. Anyway it reminded me of a recent sketch on the Armstrong and Miller show, which rather amused me. It is a spoof by the way, in case you are worried.