Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday, 6 August 2011

Undiplomatic language


Last night I put on the radio for the news at midnight and heard of the attack by a polar bear on a party of English school pupils on an expedition to Svalbad. One young man was killed and four seriously injured. This is clearly a sad event for all those connected to it. However what struck me was a comment by the British ambassador to Norway. She had flown north to Tromso to visit the injured survivors in hospital and being asked about them said, and I quote her phrasing exactly, that they were "bearing up"...
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous9 August 2011 at 12:49

    I'm also afraid that one of the unfortunate young men was "Eton alive." DF

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