Richard

“In each vineyard I climb through, a notice informs me of the name of the winegrower, the variety of grape, the exact number of vines, the year of planting. I can’t recall seeing this kind of thing in the countryside before. Another notice tells me that the fruit is insured against hailstorms; there’s the name and phone number of an insurance company.”
― Tim Parks, Mr Geography

“The difference between sex and death is that with death you can do it alone and no one is going to make fun of you.”
― Woody Allen

“One evening, he was in the modernist white restaurant above the National Portrait Gallery. Through the bank of windows was a night-time cityscape of domes and belfries. Big Ben was in the middle distance. Poking up in the foreground was Nelson on his column. James could see the back of his stone tricorn hat and his stone epaulettes. He went closer and peered down into the bright canyon of Whitehall, where he could see the entrance to DFID. A formula offered itself: I’ve made it from down there to up here. But actually, anyone could come to this restaurant. It wasn’t even very good.”
― Alexander Starritt, Drayton and Mackenzie