The Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry performed an arrangement from Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary, accompanied by the organist Dr Claude Brown, FRCO. Sir Simon Trevelyan-Tubal (son) read extracts from his own work, Mr Julian Trevelyan-Tubal (son) delivered an address and read a poem by W.H. Auden, Miss Poppy Trevelyan-Tubal (niece) read from the work of Hugh Plunkett-Greene, the Bishop of London gave the eulogy. Sir Alfred Brendel played three pieces by Chopin and Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) sang a lied from her songs of Terezin. The Honourable Company of Pikemen and Musketeers mounted guard outside the Cathedral of St Paul’s.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

At this time of year, Antibes is at its best. The almond blossom is out, the sea loses its darkness, the cold rains have mostly been swept mysteriously away, the mistral has cleared the skies and the geraniums are being planted out. There is a sense that the warm earth-life of Provence is beginning again after the longueurs of the winter.

Behind the tastefully crumbling and slowly fading wall that protects the Villa Tubal from the eyes of idle passers-by and garish tourists, the three gardeners are busy. They are Algerian, with sad, stubbled faces. Sir Harry Trevelyan-Tubal likes to sit in the garden. He particularly likes the scent of the umbrella pines and the mimosa, and the wafts of thyme, which come on the mistral off the hillside behind the house. Good health is often attributed in these parts to the mistral.