Lazy London days basking on the heath

WHILE we had heard daily reports of azure skies over Ireland, on our first morning home from holidays we woke to find dark clouds overhead, as if the gods themselves were troubled.

It was June 13, the day the soul of our ex-Great Leader joined the ether. “What else could we expect?” someone asked.

It was good to be back, however, and good to walk by the sea. When, on May 31, I told my editor that I was off to London, he responded: “London, in June? Are you okay?” Clearly, he thought such an expedition madness, given that sunny weather was forecast after a month of unremitting rain, and that a big city is no place to be in a heatwave.