Oscar's Little Ray of Sunshine

After my London European candidate selection interview yesterday, I took the Oxford Tube to Magdalen College, for the annual Oscar Wilde Society summer lunch. This is always preceded by Pimm’s and a recitation of ‘Magdalen Walks’ in Addison’s Walk. Miraculously, the weather is always fine for this quaint event, and so it was again this year, despite the fact that there have been downpours and flooding over the past few days. At the lunch, John Sloan, who wrote the Oxford ‘Authors in Context’ volume on Oscar Wilde, gave a talk, after which the guests moved off to see the Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas collections in the Magdalen archives — where I will have to return sometime soon, as I work on a book on T.E.Lawrence.

In the evening I was back in London, for the 20th anniversary celebration of the election of the first Liberal Democrat (Alliance) councillor in Lewisham, for Downham Ward. I was a councillor in neighbouring Bromley at the time and remember going over to help in that election. I don’t think any of us then could seriously have believed that by now, we would have 17 councillors in Lewisham, and a realistic prospect of taking control in 2010. So while the local party’s inhouse DJ played a medley of hits from 1987, the merry throng at the party was able both to look back with satisfaction and forward with hope.

Links: www.oscarwildesociety.co.uk and www.lewishamlibdems.org.uk

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