Happy Times

OK. So it’s never been any secret that the previous owner of our house in London was murdered there. I mean, it DOES have a Bell Tower, what did you expect? And about a year ago award-winning author Tim Lott visited me and had a look around as he was writing a piece on the murder. You see, it was his former literary agent, Rod Hall, who had been killed there. He told me he was writing a piece for a literary magazine in memoriam and I was more than happy for him to have a look around, to look at the Lofts book that our house has been featured in etc. I was a little star-struck in my own nerdy way (he won the Orange Prize! I had read one of his books!). What I did not expect was that a month or two later the article is FRONT PAGE news in the Guardian’s weekend Observer magazine. Complete with pictures (of him in my/his house!), it was both an enthralling and very sad read for me. Whilst it probably gave me waaaaaaaay more insight than I needed, it definitely painted a picture of a man that I had not given too much thought to. What a sad and disturbing story. Dave has yet to read it as he often slept in the room the murder took place (as did many of our visitors!!!) when we were dealing with a non-sleeping Fred. If you have a strong constitution (and a spare half hour as it’s not short) you can read it here.

But the reason I mention it, is that one of his star clients and good friends– Simon Beaufoy – just won an Academy Award for his screenplay. And one suspects that, had things been different, Rod would have been instrumental in this achievement and be getting very drunk at this moment. Indeed, when another of his client’s film – Charles Rutherford’s Billy Elliot – was nominated a few years back, he commissioned the amazing dining room table which we bought from the estate and enjoyed many a dinner party on for the two years we lived there. So I’m not too sure where I’m going with this other than to say I’m well pleased that Slumdog Millionaire has done so well.