I was just sitting down to read the Weekend FT when I was alerted to the fact that East London has been very generously listed by Edwin Heathcote as one of his books of the year.   Which reminds me to say that John Sandoe still have copies of the Special Edition if anyone is still looking for a Christmas present (www.johnsandoe.com):-

As a postscript to the pictures of Romilly’s book launch, I am posting more of the display of the new collection of jewellery inspired by the paintings of Tiepolo which was displayed in our house next door (see http://www.savageandchong.com):-

Mention yesterday of the Richard Avedon exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 1995 and realising that it is now over twenty years ago made me look up if there was any information about the exhibition available online – reviews perhaps, or reports of the conference which was held to mark its anniversary.   There is reference to it in a recently published book about Avedon, which suggests that he took Princess Diana on a private tour round the exhibition before it opened.   This is not strictly accurate.   As I remember it (I realise how fallible memory is), he made clear not long before the opening of the exhibition that he would like Princess Diana to open it.   He said I should contact Marguerite Littman (née Lamkin), who had worked with Avedon during the civil rights movement in the early 1960s.   I did, and even though she was ostensibly not undertaking any public engagements, she did (I remember saying to Patrick Jephson that she could always slip out of the back door and he made clear that she would certainly not want to do this).   It is implied that Avedon was not susceptible to her charms, but I am not convinced that this is strictly true either, given his enthusiasm that she should open it and the way he treated her.