Beaverbrook House

We had a lovely sunny day and it was pleasant out walking with Xena this morning. The forecast said early morning sleet but that did not happen.

This afternoon I went on a private tour of Beaverbrook House, the home of Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964), who was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century. We had a lecture by a historian on his life which was very interesting - the historian knew so many facts and figures and spoke for an hour without referring to any notes at all, which was rather impressive. I have only heard negative things about him so I was pleasantly surprised to hear what a positive contribution he made to the war effort, and how he closely advised Churchill on many matters to the benefit of the country.

This was followed by a short tour of the reception rooms - today it is a 5 star hotel so the bedrooms were not accessible, although we did see the bedroom where Churchill always slept. This photo is of Lord Beaverbrook's  library.

We then had tea - a menu to select which tea we wanted, and a selection of eats served on a tiered stand. As I had selected the gluten free option I found my eats very dry and not good at all - the scones looked more like biscuits and were dry and horrible. 

It was an interesting afternoon and as it is quite close to our house I was not gone for long so Xena did not spend a long time on her own.