Thank you for this- Nicholson was educated at Winchester College, whose war dead are a special interest of mine. I wasn’t aware of this diary, so will be in touch for a full copy!

My hero Jacob The Pilot is cycling the Operation Chastise dams in August to raise yet more funds for The RAF Benevolent Fund. Please make a donation via his JustGiving page if you can. #JustGiving justgiving.com/page/jacob-new…

In Piacenza with the local ANPI ⁦Partigiani d'Italia⁩ (National Partisan Association of Italy) commemorating the liberation in 1945 & the sacrifice of British volunteers such as Carlo CARINI (born in Arbroath).

Today I was honoured to speak at the memorial to three partisans killed on 6th October 1944- one of them Wykehamist Captain A.D. “Donny” Mackenzie (2 Cameron Highlanders), still revered by the inhabiants of the Val Nure as “Capitano Mak” Winchester College Heritage @wincoll Royal Scottish

Our last ceremony today was at the excellent & beautifully curated Museum of the Resistance of Piacenza resistenzapiacenza.it high in the hills at Sperongia di Morfasso, where Donny Mackenzie’s sword was lodged by his family in 2023.

I was privileged this afternoon to address local dignitaries in the Council Chamber of Piacenza, discussing the courage & sacrifice of those who hounded out the Germans & Fascists in late April 1945 ahead of the arrival of Allied troops. V-I day was May 2nd 1945.

Remembered with pride at St Benedict’s School Ealing St Benedict's School where he taught, & at Ealing Abbey next door where he was also a monk. His chalice is still in use by one of the monks here & there is a statue of Our Lady in his memory outside our school chapel. We remember him.

Back to Winchester College today to sign copies of “A Noble Company” on Wykeham Day amid the solemn beauty of Herbert Baker’s War Cloister, where 9 of the 40 subjects are commemorated. My poor boy had to sit there for 5 hours, but there are worse places to read books.

Finally managed to read this & couldn’t agree more with all the rave reviews. When I was ten I read Basil Embry’s account of his escape from France & here he is now among a cast of heroes whom Mr White makes us care about & admire as they deserve- not least the aircraft herself.

My mother - as a specialist bones archaeologist - went to help in Sarajevo when the UN exhumed the Srebrenica victims. It changed her for ever.

This may be the only recording in human history of the sound made by a cat licking a black plastic sack. Why our neighbours’ cat Gigi came into our house to do this, perhaps we shall never know.

On the evidence here, I think that British Army MTP camouflage was invented by owls.

Happy memories. Mine were held by Germans against Allied landings, Japanese against US Marines, & British against German parachute troops. Never enough landing craft in the first wave. Terrain was usually a scrunched US Army sleeping bag my father had acquired somewhere.

Theatre, not amphitheatre. Almost all amphitheatres are oval & don’t possess a stage. Roman theatres were mostly D-shaped with a high back wall behind the stage. Stick two theatres together back-to-back, ditch the stages & walls, & you have a double (“amphi”) theatre.

We visited his grave in Rome on Saturday.

Oh David, what a blow to have to part company with such a gorgeous machine. I remember it from when it (& some other machines) came back to the farm from Cephalonia, laden with rubber rifles. Do you still dine out on your “fruit salad with Penelope Cruz” stories?

I've been asked to appear on a podcast to defend The Black Adder, series one of Britain's greatest comedy. Apparently, nobody else is prepared to defend it, except me. I say it's a classic. Where do you stand on S1? #Blackadder

Apart from the fact that AD goes before the number, can anyone spot the embarrassingly incompetent mistake on this poster spotted in a History classroom? Manufacturer’s label included to name & shame.