I already posted a few pictures of our trip to London and
the return via sea, nearly a full month beginning the end of August. My hope was to post more photographs and let
them do the talking; thus this entry on the London leg of the trip. Another one
will follow on the transit from Southampton, England, to New York City.
My years as a publisher brought me to London and
Frankfurt on a regular basis, particularly for their book fairs. My company published academic, reference, and
professional books, mostly in the social sciences and the humanities. There was a substantial market for those
publications aboard and to effectively distribute our books throughout Europe
we partnered with a relatively young firm at the time, Eurospan, which was run by its charismatic founder, Peter Geelan. Danny Maher was the chief financial officer and over the
years we became close to Peter’s family and Danny’s as well. Our youngest son, Jonathan, was a few years
younger than Danny’s two daughters. We made it a point to visit them at their home in west London.
There, Danny and Pat, his wife, would prepare a typical
English Sunday dinner, our two families, including Danny’s mother (“Mum”)
growing closer over the years. They came
to our home in Connecticut to stay with us as well.
After Peter died, his son, Michael, who had been working
with Peter, took over the business with Danny.
I also had a close relationship with Peter’s middle son, Jeremy,professionally and personally, who tragically died recently of pancreatic cancer.
So, that sets the stage for our London visit, the main
reason was to reconnect with people we consider “family.”
I already posted a similar picture of our “reunion” but
this one was with another camera, so I repost:
Our visit to the Eurospan offices, where they’ve been all
these years in the heart of Covent Garden but soon will be relocating...
An interesting contrast, Michael, Danny, and me in 1980
and one of us at the recent reunion dinner...
And another English Sunday dinner feast, prepared by
Danny and Pat’s daughters, Claire and Lisa, and served at Lisa’s home...
Part of this nostalgic tour was to revisit our “old
neighborhood.” We used to stay at The
Cavendish London Hotel near Jermyn St and made a regular routine to visit the
exquisite Fortnum and Mason as well as dining at Rowleys...
Then, via underground to Oxford Street.: Ann wanted to do
some shopping and I wanted to see Selfridges again, especially after enjoying
the BBC/PBS series. It is impressive how
they’ve maintained the building and their high standards...
A trip to London demands time in its great museums and
galleries. Here is the National Gallery entrance....
But our greatest pleasure was spending a day at the
V&A – the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Its decorative arts and design collection is unparalleled. Ann’s particular interest was the exhibit
from the Jane Austen era. Here you can
see her posing behind one of the waistcoat dresses of the time...
In fact, as I
write this, Ann is attending the Jane Austen Society of North America conference in Washington with sister “Janeites.”
Other related exhibits are a music room and sitting area from
that era...
I liked the contemporary hanging design entitled Breathless at V&A which is Silver-plated
brass wind instruments, flattened and suspended on stainless steel wire...
It was a hot day, even for London when we visited the
V&A and having the requisite Scones and Tea for a very late lunch, emerging into an unusually warm day for London...
Not to visit the London stage while there would be
heresy. The narrative link describes the
five performances we saw, the one disappointment was not being able to see the
Outdoor Theatre performance of Pride and
Prejudice in its entirety because of rain.
Here we are having pre-theatre dinner outdoors on the site, in the rain
of course!...
I tried to get shots of the stages of the other four
plays we saw but was unable to get one for The
Entertainer. Here are ones for In the Heights, The Go Between, and The Truth...
And those are certainly the highlights of our memorable London visit. And so after a very full week
there, we departed for Southampton to board a ship for our transatlantic
journey. That photographic story can be found here.
