First Royal Diamond Wedding Anniversary

Only the fifth time a double portrait on the Coins...

Now all the Queen and Prince Philip have to do is a Diamond Jubilee and a Platinum wedding anniversary plus a Platinum Jubilee and then she'll be virtually unbeatable

She is after all only six years away from Queen Victoria's record of 61 years on the throne

A Day at the Cathedral

This is the first time in two years since I was at St Paul's Cathedral and on that occasion on 1st November 2005 I was lucky enough to exit through the big central West doors along with some fellow KCU members.

They charge now for entrance so I didnt go in but it was good to see St Paul's again

Book Review

Its not often I recommend a book on just reading a little article but in the case of
A Throne in Brussels: Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianization of Europe
by Paul Belien I have to wholeheartedly recommend it.

It seems that Belgium is on the point of splitting apart and surprisingly for those of us of a certain age that it is a relatively young country having only been in existence for 166 years.

I certainly didn't know that nor that the first King of the Belgians was Queen Victoria's father in law

I knew that Victoria did exactly what Leopold did and tried to get all the monarchies on board by having nine children and marrying them off to the crowned heads of Europe such that when she died she had no less than nine monarchs and two emperors as relatives following her on the gun carriage on which her coffin rested.


It seems Leopold was the Tony Blair of his day except he wasn't the poodle rather all his lovers were