In the papers

Today I had a quiet day to myself for the first time in years,as the boys had gone to Wembley to see Luton playing.

I had a rare chance to sit and read the papers. I particularly liked Craig Brown, as always, writing about The Old Boys' Network, by John Rae,

sometime headmaster of Westminster School.

This was interesting to me on several levels. My son received a less-than-glowing report last week from his headmaster, who is clearly not enamoured of my lovely, but rebellious, 18-year-old son. Although I have not had the pleasure of seeing this report in the flesh, it reportedly tells him that Oxford does not offer degrees in 'self-delusion' - (strange - it did in my day) - and that, despite having developed a marvellous tenor voice, he does not represent a 'serious academic prospect' to any decent university. I am keeping it in the hope that said son will prove him wrong.

The other interesting connection I had with this book is that John managed to get himself into the Weidenfeld circle - I worked at Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the Harold Wilson/Marcia Falkender days, and enjoyed Craig's description of the 'time-capsule cast of Harold and Marcia, Edna O'Brian, David Frost, Jimmy Goldsmith and Lew Grade ...'. Happy days!

When

I worked at Weidenfeld's we were routinely invited to parties at which all of the above people would be present, no matter what the subject of the book being launched.

I also liked the description of the passage where John Rae tells of a master sweeping away 'any scruffy or punk figures' ahead of a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Kent. My son would almost certainly have been kept out of the way like this, with his unruly long hair and unkempt scuffed and unpolished black shoes, like a latter-day William Brown.