"Contented river" - London by night

(Thanks, H)

Afternoon- Courtauld. Delighted as always by three luminous Bonnards. Astonished again by Kies van Dongen. My usual ambivalence towards Pechstein's powerful Bathers. Realising I barely know Vlaminck. Dufy is cheerful as always, and wonderful Macke goes straight to my soul.

Evening: The Royal Hunt of the Sun. Memories of schooldays (it was the school play in my first year at secondary school) and my English teacher, who I feared and who must have found me naive and wholly unimaginative: but uncomprehending though I was at the time, he is one who has made me who I am.

A good play: the hero, desperate for belief, inevitably disappointed. A personal calamity amongst a nation's ruin. Painful resonance with today's world. Will Bush and Blair be similarly treated by playwrights three centuries hence? Am I too hard on them?

Night: walking down the river seeing St Paul's behind the fake blue jacarandas. London, grey, wet and misty by day, now calm and relaxed. Peaceful Thames.