Wednesday 21st May
A full day interviewing candidates for the post of CPA Secretary, breaking just for Prime Minister's Questions. Last week we interviewed a long short-list of eighteen. Today we cut down the final six to three, to be presented to full Executive at the end of June. It is always sad to have to turn down really first class applicants
In the evening to an extraordinary ballroom, which looks as if it has been transplanted from a casino in Blackpool. Vast and cavernous, and at the end of the Edgware Road, it is the venue for a most remarkable and enjoyable evening – the dinner to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Press Gallery. The Prime Minister delivers a witty speech, well judged and sufficiently self-deprecating to earn genuine applause from what must be the most difficult of audiences. The Speaker proposes the toast to the Press Gallery with some nice references to Mr Speaker Abbot, who was in the Chair in 1803. But the evening is stolen by the most rumbustiously amusing speech I have heard in many a long day - from the inimitable Chris Moncrieff, this year, by a happy choice, Chairman of the Press Gallery – with a personal experience of Westminster going back over more than a quarter of the period we are celebrating. That's a thought!
Thursday 22nd May
It was a late night but I am still in before 7.00 to tackle a mountain of paper again. Every day we seem to fill four large wastepaper baskets in my office. My heart bleeds for the trees. Why don't those who bombard us with brochures merely take out a page in the House Magazine instead?
Then it is to Lambeth Palace for the Annual Court of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust of which I have been a Trustee for over thirty years. I have to leave just after the Duke of Gloucester arrives so that I can be in my place for Business Questions and try to get in a reference to the Press Gallery. Thank goodness Mr Speaker calls me and John Reid, un-primed and remarkably chirpy in spite of his team's defeat and a flight back from Seville, responds appropriately.
Then I drive home to address the Cheslyn Hay Historical Society on their tenth anniversary – on a third of a century in the House!
Friday 23rd May
The first day of the recess and we head off early for Grimsby via Lincoln. My mother died, aged ninety, just before Christmas 2000 and May 25th would have been her birthday. My brother and I are to present an icon of the Virgin and Child to the church where she worshipped for over half a century.
Tonight we have a quiet dinner at our favourite family run hotel – The Kingsway in Cleethorpes – where I first went for dinner in 1955. It is run by the grandsons of the then owner.
Saturday 24th May
My wife spends the day with her mother and I go off on a nostalgic tour of some of my favourite places. First stop is Louth, after Ludlow my favourite English country town, with its marvellous spire and wonderful 18th Century houses. I meander on to Horncastle and then take country lanes as the spirit moves me and the memory directs. Lincolnshire is one of the least known counties and I am almost reluctant to write about its beauties for they depend so much on the unspoilt tranquillity of the lanes that wind through the gently undulating Wolds. This is Tennyson country and it has altered little since the days of the poet.
I return to find that my brother has been struck by a wretched stomach bug and is unable to travel from London.
Sunday 25th May
There is a goodly congregation in the ancient parish church of the Holy Trinity and St. Mary at Old Clee – once a wholly separate village nestling between Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Clee church, with its Saxon tower, and its contemporary inscription recording the dedication of the nave by St. Hugh of Lincoln in 1192 “In the Year of Richard our King” is the oldest church for miles around. I sang there in the choir as a boy. I rang the bells. I served at the Altar. I gave out the hymn books at the door. And before I left Grimsby I was Chairman of the Stewardship Committee and Vice Chairman of the PCC. But all that was nearly forty years ago.
We have a Prayer Book service of communion and the vicar preaches a very appropriate sermon after the presentation of the icon, commissioned from a remarkable former Orthodox monk who now lives in Shrewsbury.
After the service we drive back to Staffordshire.
Monday 26th May
The third Bank Holiday in five weeks and the only one where I am able to take the day off and not drive back to London or to a constituency event.
Tuesday 27th May
A full day at the desk catching up on paperwork. My constituency secretary, who has worked for me for twenty-seven years, calculates that the mail has tripled, if not quadrupled, over the last fifteen years.
Wednesday 28th May
A glorious May day and perfect for visiting the Staffordshire Show. We get to the Showground shortly after 11.00 and wander around the stalls and then have lunch in the Chairman of the County Council's marquee. We see many friends and constituents and after lunch buy a variety of things for the garden and then drive gently home.
Thursday 29th May
Another desk day but the weather is so glorious that, for the first time this year, I move into my writing hut in the garden and look out over the roses. Working is no penance even though I do spend about seven hours there.
Then, in the evening, our Ascension Day service at church and the PCC to follow.
Friday May 30th
A morning in the hut and an afternoon, after lunch in the garden, meeting my fellow churchwarden. In the evening to Bridgnorth. It is the first day of the annual English Haydn Festival. It has now been running for eleven years. A remarkable group of musicians and soloists produce wonderful music for ten days, mainly in the former parish church of St. Leonard's in its mini-cathedral close setting in the heart of Bridgnorth. Tonight we have two short operas performed by Opera Restored – one by Scarlatti and the other by Haydn himself and both featuring a diva as the heroine. It is all very light and frothy stuff but a splendid way to spend a summer evening and at the festival they always do it Glyndebourne-style with a long supper interval.
Saturday May 31st
A full festival day. In the morning to the lovely old church at Acton Round where a trio entertains us after an idyllic hour wandering around the gardens of Acton Round Hall and having coffee in the house. I have written before about Hew Kennedy, the squire of Acton, who has the most amazing talents. Last year he was shipping horse armour to Texas and this year he is into elephant armour. He also makes the most bizarre compositions featuring stuffed squirrels. The next one is to depict the murder of Edward II – with all the graphic detail that macabre story evokes.
Leaning on the gate just before the concert and looking out over the gently rolling Shropshire countryside is pure bliss.
In the evening back to Bridgnorth for a quite wonderful concert ending with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and a virtuoso performance by Colin Lawson.
Sunday June 1st
We have decided to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Coronation with a special service in Enville church, and to invite all the villagers. A good many come. My job is to give the address. Afterwards we serve wine at the back of the church – though I have to stick to orange juice for after lunch it is back to London.
Monday June 2nd
Into the office before 7.00am to beat the congestion charge and then, after three hours at the desk, I walk across to the Abbey. I have been fortunate enough to get a ticket for the service, held on the very date of the Coronation fifty years ago, to mark that great event. The congregation is a procession of all our yesterdays, and todays, and a few tomorrows. The service itself is marked by some beautiful music but it is an occasion of subdued pageantry – very different from St. Paul's a year ago. As always the Abbey does it beautifully – though I do wish all the readings had been from the King James Bible!
In the evening a real contrast – across to Great George Street for the first two recordings in this year's Parliamentary Questions series. My partner in the contest is John Bercow and we have two stimulatingly amusing rounds with Roy Hattersley and Anne McElvoy of the Standard. You will have to listen to find who wins.
Tuesday June 3rd
In early again and then at 10.30 I take a group of American students, here for the Catholic University of America internship, round the House and after give lunch, with Calum MacDonald and Mark Oaten, to the Bosnian Ambassador. After Questions, back to meetings and the desk.
Now, it's full steam ahead until July 18th – a date to which I look forward with eager anticipation!
