• The Daily Telegraph
• Le Figaro
• The New York Post
• L’Orient-Le Jour
• L'Osservatore Romano
• The Irish Times
• Conservative Home
• The Jewish Chronicle

• FAZ / Eng.
• NZZ / Eng.
• Magyar Nemzet
• ABC.es
• The Catholic Herald
• Il Foglio
• London Playbook
• Financial Times

France

Mitteleuropa

Knickerbockers

Argentina

The Levant

Africa

Cape of Good Hope

Netherlands

Scandinavia

Québec

India

Muscovy

Germany

Here are my answers from today, republished with the kind permission of the editor.

Always begin with Mass – I dislike leaving it to the evening. Usually at the Brompton Oratory, or at St George’s Cathedral right across the street from me in Southwark.

Following the news or taking it easy this August?

Picked up Le canard enchainé this week, which I do from time to time. Good to add words to my lexicon (flache-baque) and try and keep up with things the other side of la Manche.

Other than that, avoiding the news like the plague.

Breakfast plans?

Cappuccino and pain au chocolat. Boring but reliable.

What’s on the soundtrack lately?

‘Albi Ya Albi’ by Nancy Ajram and some beautiful Stradella arias.

And the bookshelf?

Just finished another Maigret, some Robertson Davies, and Seb Faulkes’ Bond novel. Now on Tom Gallagher’s bio of Salazar, Jan Morris’s Venice, and one of the Zen detective novels.

Been reading a lot of Leonardo Sciascia lately – his name is such a pleasure to pronounce – and I’ve got some John B. Keane and Anthony Levi’s biography of Richelieu on the way. Jaan Kross is sitting on the pile. And Juan Gabriel Vasquez, who I’ve enjoyed greatly.

A glass of something?

A good cold glass of white Burgundy outdoors, although in this heat a gin-and-tonic is always a welcome relief.

Lemon or lime?

Lemon, always – unless it’s Archangel, a delicious gin a mate of mine makes in Norfolk. Always a slice of orange with Archangel.

Sunday evening routine?

I usually try to have a night in on Sunday, but yesterday ended up in Hampstead meeting Isaac and Joe for a pint before Tijmen got us round for a Scotch (or “uno Scotch-ito” as he confusingly calls it) on the terrace as the sun went down.

The NW3 crew usually refuse to ever leave their postcode, but I drop in often and I can see why.

What’s on the menu lately?

A friend came round Saturday night for a quick dinner pre-pub session. I made some pappardelle, chopped up the leftover sausage I’d had at lunch and threw it in a pot with some sun-dried tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, lots of butter, pinch of dried Italian peppers, red pesto, mixed it all up and served with some ripped leaves of basil. Went down pretty well.

What’s the week ahead hold?

Two dinner parties – one Hungarian-Jewish/French in Putney, the other Welsh/German/French in Soho – and hoping to make it to ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ at the Prince Charles Cinema this Wednesday.

Other than that, a fair bit of work and writing and I hope a lot of reading in the garden.

Enjoy!

Thank you!

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