A friend in England knew a lot of famous people. More significantly I suppose, they knew him. Not that he ever name-dropped, he only mentioned it when it was relevant to the conversation.
Driving to the pub one evening, and he says to me "That's Yehudi, isn't it, playing the Bach partita" (on the car's cd player). "Yes it is", I replied, not too surprised that he picked the artist - he came from a very musical family. "I thought so" he continued "he played that at my father's funeral".
Or, he, Dad and I were discussing Fawlty Towers. "Strange fellow, John Cleese" says he, "he slept on the floor in my apartment for a month when he was short of work. Almost impossible to live with."
Barbara Cartland used to bemoan the fact that his hair was always messy.
Finally the creme de la creme, we were meeting his older brother in London prior to going to see an exhibition at the British Museum, and his brother was half an hour late. He apologised profusely, but there had been a "personal crisis" at the Palace and he had been delayed ......
But I don't suppose you build up such a range of friends and acquaintances in one lifetime. As I said, he came from a very musical family - so musical that even Beethoven is recorded as talking about them.
