Good morning everyone,

I hope you enjoy today’s tribute to the beautiful city of London and its many awesome women.

Let’s start with the gloriously weird Christina Foyle. Reading this obituary makes me very pleased that I don’t know or work for her but also fills me with delight that she existed and that I can read about her. This pullquote is really the tip of the iceberg, I strongly encourage you to read the whole obituary:

Wealthy and eccentric, she boasted that she had never done her own housework or cooked her own meals, and that she drank only champagne. Even in her last years, she said that she continued to read an entire book every day.

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/11/world/christina-foyle-88-the-queen-of-the-london-bookstore-dies.html

Next up, Nell Gwynne. In these times of heightened excitement about the romantic lives of the Royals, it’s good to remember how that panned out in the 1600s. There is a story I love about Nell Gwynne – not at the below link and in no way verified – please don’t put it in a history essay and then write to me when you get a low mark – anyway, she was at Charles II’s deathbed. And just before he died he said to all of the listening courtiers (and maybe his wife as well?) “let not… my… poor Nellie… starve”. His poor Nellie, who had a clear sense of the side on which her bread was buttered and the likelihood of these deathbed wishes being respected, twisted a bunch of his rings off as soon as he died and absconded to France. Playing the long game, according the below:

During Nell's time at court she also spent a lot less than the others. Her annual expenditure was about £60,000 whereas both Barbara and Louise's was much more. Indeed, Nelly's annual pension was less than the other two also - she was paid approximately £6000 per year, and along side which she also received wine licences for around £8000 per year, along side other such licenses Hopkins reckons she brought in around £30,000 per year. Alongside Barbara's £2.25 million and over £4 million by Louise, it was certainly a very modest amount.

https://loyaltybindsme.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/inspirations-from-history-nell-gwynne_09.html

Back in the modern age, one of the things I love about London is how green it is as a city, and here are designer and guerilla gardener Vanessa Harden’s devices that you can use to make it even more colourful:

American installation designer Vanessa Harden […] showed us technical drawings inspired by the glamour of James Bond and Q’s gadgets. Need to dig a furtive planting hole? Mark 2 Agent Deployed Field Augur comes in an elegant handbag. Drill the hole, collect the surplus soil in your bag and hurry away. Device no 2 can be fixed to the side of your shoe to scatter seeds along the bedraggled pavement edges as you walk.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2014/oct/10/guerrilla-gardening-a-report-from-the-frontline

Stay bunting-aware out there, people,

Alex.