.
‘Tear along the perforated line…..
So many guineas London Membership’
Setting aside a serviette
He drew his handkerchief of antique silk
‘Grilled sole and new potatoes garden peas’
Gilded mirror an old master? alabaster
‘Public Service used to be gold-standard
An error now to give a grant outright’
Oxbridge Undergraduates sometimes ‘let off steam’
Working-class boys perpetrate ‘a riot on a train’
‘Oriental manuscripts demand I stay in town
Checking data prior to publication’
‘On my heart a splendid glass of port
Out-of-puff and rest here in the vestibule’
Much later in the library someone died
Mid-nap mid-afternoon behind The Times
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.