LONDON NEWS

TUPNews recommends that you go ice-skating in Somerset House, on London’s the Strand.

I went on Monday and it was thoroughly sublime. Reading a nineteenth-century novel had put me in a nineteenth-century frame of mind, which was perfectly suited to the Dickensian tableaux of young, rosy-cheeked, rather posh gentlemen and ladies in long grey overcoats scraping about on the ice. The stately-home setting is perfect, and thankfully so was the weather – cold and dry, the very best London has to offer. Families brought young ones to the ice for the first time. Parliamentarians treated their staff to a few laps and some mulled wine. It was fantastic.

How can the sheer innocence not soften the hard-set urban jaw? How can the heart not melt to see the tall, soft-spoken West Indian ice marshal helping small children (and at one point, TUPNews) to their feet? How can the rustic cynic doubt that London is simply the best place to live in the whole wide world?

Women, of course, become totally divine on ice. Either stumbling helplessly, bringing out the primal stuff, or gracefully, artfully gliding around, stirring fantasies of cosy mountain living. The ice rink at Somerset House is a great place to fall in love.

This is the fiftieth and final post of the year. A happy holiday season to all of TUPNews’ readers! Thank you for your continued support.