FAREWELL, JOHN JULIUS

RIP JJN

It is with great sadness that I have to record the death of the patron of our development appeal, John Julius Norwich, who was a genuinely life-enhancing person. For people of my generation, he was one of those names you remembered from TV and radio in the seventies: I remember him on "Call My Bluff" and "My Music" on the television, and "Round Britain Quiz" and "My Word" on the radio, but the BBC also used him as a documentary presenter, and he was one of the first presenters on Classic FM. He also wrote dozens of books, mostly popular history, in fact the most recent one, a history of France "from Gaul to De Gaulle" only came out in the past year. I was going to say that he was a link with a more leisured age, except that gives the wrong impression, because John Julius worked extremely hard all his adult life, though he had the advantage of working at what he enjoyed. Perhaps what I mean is that he was a link with a literary and aristocratic world that has passed into history, but which retains a real glamour. His mother, you see, was Lady Diana Cooper, the quintessential "bright young thing" in the 1920s, daughter of the Duke of Rutland, and friend of Evelyn Waugh (who based characters on her). His father, Duff Cooper, was a bit of a rascal, who had been part of the Raymond Asquith set at Oxford before the First World War (the rest were mostly killed, he survived), and as an MP was Churchill's great ally in opposing the appeasement of Hitler before the outbreak of the Second World War. Duff Cooper ended the War as British Ambassador in Paris and was given the title of Viscount Norwich when he retired. So John Julius, who knew Churchill and De Gaulle (and heard Chaliapin sing when he was a boy) was a connection with that vanished world.

John Julius was also a friend of John Betjeman, and so for us at Mary Mags was a link with that great enthusiast for our church (who spoke at the centenary celebrations back in the sixties) and so we were delighted when he agreed to be our patron. What I didn't realise, though, was just how jolly he was, and how much he would bring to our appeal, even in his  mid-eighties. When he agreed to be patron, he said, "Well, I'll do it, but you understand I'll just be a figurehead, I can't actually do anything." Nothing could have been further from the truth. Of course he presided merrily at our receptions, recalling that Betjeman had called the church "a corker!", and cheerfully wielded a spade alongside a bunch of primary schoolchildren in hard hats and hi-vis at our groundbreaking ceremony, but he did more. Not only did he get involved with the fundraising by personally approaching elderly trustees whom he knew to empty out a couple of trusts for us, but he actually performed for the benefit of Mary Mags; we had a marvellous evening of anecdotes, recitations and songs, at which he accompanied himself on the piano. He was a real trouper, as they say.

John Julius moved last year from his house in Blomfield Road into a flat in Bayswater, having been a fixture in Little Venice for decades, but the point was that he moved there long before it was smart. When he moved in it was still a louche, rackety, rather bohemian area, with actors and artists, and not at all the home of pop stars and hedge funders that it has become. He may have been an aristocrat, but he was a bohemian by temperament, and had a fine sense of self-awareness; I remember him saying that he'd never had an original historical thought in his life, however many books he'd written. Above all, though, he was great fun, and was a great enthusiast. He loved beauty, and always wanted others to share his enthusiasm. We were lucky to be one of the last beneficiaries of that enthusiasm.         


On the Canal

More happily, I have to record that the Egyptian geese now have five goslings, cute little brown and white fluffballs. The whole family sit on the towpath and the parents honk aggressively at cyclists, dogs, and indeed anyone passing. I hope the little ones survive and thrive.


On the Pitch (part 1)

It's a very good story that the entire production run of Nigeria's World Cup shirt was pre-ordered within hours of their match at Wembley the other day. The odd thing is that the shirt is apparently the only one in the whole tournament with a really outrageous design, the hangover-troubling zigzags, green and white on the body and black and white on the sleeves. The shirt manufacturers seem to have invested a lot in texture this year, so there are lots of what would traditionally be called "self" patterns, designs that appear only in the texture of the fabric (there's one that is white and white diagonal halves, for instance, wow!) but I can't help feeling that this rather misses the point that the shirt needs to work on television. I've studied the full array (admittedly only on a computer screen) and couldn't really discern some of the alleged designs at all. Perhaps they are designed for vast TV screens in pubs, and will work on that scale, but I'm not convinced. Lots of very weak collar details, though.


On the Pitch (part 2)

In the barber's last week, I got involved in a very heated discussion about Raheem Sterling and his tattoo. This was before he (allegedly) took a dive in the Nigeria game and turned up late for the training camp; two stories that illustrate how much copy he generates. It's odd, because I don't quite understand why he attracts so much negative press. I did make the point that he knows how much he's under the microscope, so it was pretty stupid to have the tattoo done, if he didn't want a fuss.The haircut took a long time, as Dwayne the barber defended Raheem's right to put whatever he wants on his own body at great length and with much emphasis. A barber gesticulating with an open razor is my friend at all times!