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B U S I N E S S A S U S U A L I N S U M M E R O F C E L E B R A T I O N

London is preparing for an exceptionally busy and enjoyable summer with HM the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in early June followed by the Olympics and Paralympics as well as all the usual summer attractions such as the Wimbledon tennis championships, the City of London Festival and the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. The central weekend in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations runs from Saturday 2 June to Tuesday 5 June, with the Monday and Tuesday being public holidays. The panoply of events includes the Jubilee Pageant on the

Thames on the Sunday and the service

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of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral o

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on the Tuesday. g

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www.thediamondjubilee.org h

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The London Olympics opening ceremony a m

is on 27 July, the closing ceremony on á

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12 August. The Paralympics run from z

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29 August to 9 September. The events ó are many and various, from rowing at Eton Dorney to beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade. www.london2012.com The Penn Club will be open as usual Spring greenery in Russell Square throughout the summer and the rest of the year, and we would be delighted to see you in the coming months. While at present we still have plenty of vacancies in June, July and August, our advice to members is the same as always: we advise that you book as soon as you can because the Club often fills up.

C L U B E V E N T S

The advertised event on 1 April had to be re-jigged because illness caused the cancellation of the afternoon concert at St George’s Bloomsbury. We went instead to the Conway Hall to attend a superb evening concert by the Coull Quartet. The concert at St George’s Bloomsbury has been re-arranged for Sunday 24 June, when Ailsa Hunter and Mark Packwood will perform their postponed programme of violin and piano sonatas. We will have tea in the Club at 3.00pm before going to St George’s for the concert at 4.00pm. All are welcome. Then we will have the pleasure of a literary event in the Club in the evening of Thursday 5 July.

Mary Shakeshaft formerly Principal Lecturer in English at Middlesex University on Shakespeare the Invisible Man The event is free to members; guests are welcome to attend with a bottle. Thursday 5 July, 7.00pm in the Edward Cadbury Room. P A G E 2 P E N N P A L M A Y 2 0 1 2

S H A K E S P E A R E I N T O W N

Bottom: Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new

ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look m

u o’er his part; for the short and long is, our play is preferred. In any

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u case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion M

h pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion’s claws. And, most

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r dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet

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h breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy. T

The theatres of London will stage more of Shakespeare’s plays and more performances of the plays this year than ever before. The Globe Theatre has begun working through all 37 plays, staging each one in a different language in its Globe to Globe festival. Forthcoming performances include Julius Caesar in Italian and The Merchant of Venice in Hebrew and then Henry V in English in early June. The main (all-English) season at the Globe picks up with Henry V, continues with The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III and ends in October with Twelfth Night. Mark Rylance returns to the Globe stage in the last two plays – appearing as Richard III and as Olivia. The Royal Shakespeare Company is performing fives of the plays – Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors - from June to October at the Noël Coward Theatre and the Roundhouse. At the National Theatre, Simon Russell Beale takes the title rôle in Timon of Athens from 10 July to 9 September. Jonathan Pryce is King Lear at the Almeida Theatre from 31 August to 3 November. The Royal Opera House is performing Verdi’s Falstaff in May and Otello in July. More information on all the above productions may be found on a composite website: www.worldshakespearefesitval.org.uk The best news of all is that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is returning to the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park in this the theatre’s 80th summer season. To see this gem of a play in the most magical venue is a pure delight. Performances run from 2 June to 5 September; they alternate with the musical Ragtime. www.openairtheatre.com

E X H I B I T I O N S

This year brings a banquet of exhibitions in central London. We offer a selection:

The British Museum: Shakespeare: staging the world; 19 July to 25 November www.britishmuseum.org The Royal Academy: Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed; to 10 June www.royalacademy.org.uk Summer Exhibition 2012; 4 June to 12 August The National Gallery: Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude; to 5 June www.nationalgallery.org.uk Tate Britain: Picasso and Modern British Art; to 15 July www.tate.org.uk The British Library: Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands; 11 May to 25 September www.bl.uk Wellcome Collection: Brains: The mind as matter; to 17 June www.wellcomecollection.org P E N N P A L M A Y 2 0 1 2 P A G E 3

The Great Hall of Lambeth Palace: Royal Devotion: Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer; to 14 July www.lambethpalacelibrary.org The National Portrait Gallery: The Queen: Art and Image; 17 May to 21 October www.npg.org.uk The Queen’s Gallery: Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist; to 7 October www.royalcollection.org.uk

A sail down the river to Greenwich will bring you to the National Maritime Musuem, where the current exhibition, to 9 September, is Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames.

We also recommend seeing The Queen’s House, the Old Royal Naval College, the Royal Observatory and a famous ship, the restored and recently re-opened Cutty Sark. www.rmg.co.uk

And no visit to Greenwich is complete without a plate of whitebait in one of the old taverns. The Trafalgar Tavern and the Cutty Sark Tavern © William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/ are both excellent. National Portrait Gallery, London

D I N I N G O U T A frequent enquiry from members looking for somewhere near the Club to eat in the evening is, “Where can we find fish and chips?” We take this to mean traditional fish and chips: a white fish fillet, usually cod or haddock, in golden batter with chipped King Edward or Maris Piper potatoes. The traditional accompaniment is mushy peas, a semi- puréed delicacy made from marrowfat peas and always a distinctive shade of green. It is said of Peter Mandelson (Lord Mandelson), a former Cabinet Minister, that he once mistook mushy peas for guacamole in a fish-and-chip shop in his constituency; an easy mistake. The traditional condiment for fish and chips is vinegar; tartar sauce is acceptable; mayonnaise on chips is a continental habit but often allowed. Purveyors of fish and chips fall into three categories, all of them well represented in this part of London. The first is the essential fish-and-chip shop. This is the establishment specialising in simple and affordable fish and chips, serving customers wanting to eat on the premises as well as those wanting a meal to take away, wrapped in newspaper pages. Two good places of this sort may be found close together in Theobalds Road: Alen’s Fish and Chips at number 43 and the Fryer’s Delight at number 19. Then there are the more up-market establishments, the fish-and-chip restaurants. Two well-known eateries of this kind, both of them listed in restaurant guides, are the North Sea Fish Restaurant in Leigh Street, off Marchmont Street, and the Rock and Sole Plaice in Endell Street, Covent Garden. The third category is the public house. Most pubs in London serve hot food at lunchtime and in the evenings, up to 9 or 10pm, and almost every pub with a menu will offer fish and chips. Of the pubs within easy walking distance of the Club, you could try the Marquis Cornwallis in Marchmont Street, The Queen’s Larder or The Swan in Cosmo Place, off Southampton Row, or the Museum Tavern or The Plough in Museum Street. It’s a pub you need if you fancy a glass of beer with your fish and chips. If you want to treat yourself to a Dover Sole or something else from the expensive end of the sea, you should head for one of the fish- and-chip restaurants. But we have to say that we have a soft spot for the fish-and-chip shops in Theobalds Road. Alen’s Fish and Chips will serve you a perfectly decent glass of wine; the Fryer’s Delight doesn’t have a licence to sell alcohol but you may take your own bottle if you wish. We end with our special recommendation: buy a bottle of Chablis from Portland Food and Wine in Southampton Row and take it to Fryer’s Delight; return to the Club via Lamb’s Conduit Street, where there are a few options for a nightcap. P A G E 4 P E N N P A L M A Y 2 0 1 2

T H E P O M E G R A N A T E Once when I was living in the heart of a pomegranate, I heard a seed saying, "Some day I shall become a tree, and the wind S

will sing in my branches, and the sun will dance on my leaves, p e c

and I shall be strong and beautiful through all the seasons." i a l l y d

Then another seed spoke and said, "When I was as young as r a w

you, I too held such views; but now that I can weigh and n f o

measure things, I see that my hopes were vain." r t h e

And a third seed spoke also: "I see in us nothing that P e n

promises so great a future." n C l u And a fourth said, "But what a mockery our life would be, b b y

without a greater future!" J o h n

Said a fifth, "Why dispute what we shall be, when we know C r e e

not even what we are." d . But a sixth replied, "Whatever we are, that we shall continue to be." And a seventh said, "I have such a clear idea how everything will be, but I cannot put it into words." Then an eighth spoke - and a ninth - and a tenth - and then many - until all were speaking, and I could distinguish nothing for the many voices. And so I moved that very day into the heart of a quince, where the seeds are few and almost silent. Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), from The Madman: His Parables and Poems

P E N N P A L Q U I Z The common names of wild flowers often evoke the rural past - the sentimental romanticism of forget-me-not, the descriptive power of shaking goosefoot, the medicinal use of woundwort. What plants are these? 1 Great Macedonians 6 Use this to reduce your temperature 2 Jaundiced St Michael 7 The antidote to stinging nettles 3 Canine Hg 8 The sight of an elderly gentleman might lighten your journey 4 The aristocratic alternative to Jack in the Pulpit 9 Something for her to sleep on 5 A beautiful but lethal lady 10 Baroness Orczy wrote about it

Entries should be submitted by postcard or by e-mail to the Club Secretary, to arrive by 1 July. The winner of the first winning entry drawn on the next day will receive a free night’s accommodation in the Club (subject to availability). Many thanks to the Quiz Master, John Ward. Members who still wish to enter the February Quiz are welcome to do so; they have until 1 December.

TWO GOODBYES We have recently said goodbye to two people who have been part of the Club community for many years. Ion Windsor was the Club’s handyman from 1994 to February this year. We wish Ion and his wife Mary a happy retirement in Chislehurst and at the family vineyard in Romania, and we look forward to sampling Ion’s sauvignon blanc when he returns to say hello. Julia Evans arrived at the Club in 1988 and stayed here until April this year, when she retired from the Civil Service and returned home to Accrington in Lancashire. She contributed to the Club as a member of the Committee for a few years and over a longer period as a night-time duty manager. We wish Julia a happy future in pottery-making and look forward to hearing her news when she returns to London to see War Horse.

Editor: Kenneth Robbie The Penn Club 21-23 Bedford Place London WC1B 5JJ Tel 020 7636 4718 [email protected] www.pennclub.co.uk