Jazz in the garden

The first thing I do when I wake up on the morning of our summer garden party is to hesitate before opening the curtains - sunshine, with a little cloud. Mary then insists that I check all five weather forecasts on the tv, which confirm sunshine with a little cloud. The first guests usually arrive around 12.30 and the last some 45 minutes later when we all sit down for lunch. There seemed to be some trouble on the M11 yesterday, so when we sat down, there were still some 40 guests missing and they trickled in over the next half an hour.

The entertainment this year was by Close Stave, a close harmony group from Clare College, who gave us a very enjoyable performance of 6 songs, ending on Danny Boy. Margaret Thatcher as always stole the show, particularly when she conducted the jazz band to everyone's amusement and delight. The second show stealer was the Eric Gill of The Good Samaritan. This sculpture was originally on the front of Coventry Hospital, but was badly damaged during World War II, and one of my projects this year was to ask Mark Bury (who did his training in Eric Gill's studio) to bring it back to its original state. Nine months later you can see his remarkable achievement.

I believe that you can judge the success of an event by what time your guests depart, and the last one went at 5 minutes past five, which only gave Mary and myself an hour's break before the charity event for Addenbrooke's Hospital began in the same marquee. The evening's entertainers were Kenny Ball (age 79) and his Jazzmen. They were like spring chickens, and their renderings of Midnight in Moscow, Wonderful World, and Ain't Misbehavin' all received standing ovations. Because of their generosity in giving their time for free (I later learned that doctors at Addenbrooke's saved Kenny's wife's life), the hospital benefited by some £30,000. Two other amazing facts emerged in the course of the evening: in the hospital's Department of Medicine for the Elderly, the average age of a patient is now 87, and the BBC which is celebrating 60 years of the National Health Service with a series of programmes, has chosen to feature Addenbrooke's on breakfast television on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week - so tune in!