HIS speciality was searching, successfully, for German and Japanese submarines in the North Atlantic and Indian Ocean. With Coastal Command he protected the Russian convoys.
Pilot extraordinary, Richard Gordon Wakeford (Air Vice-Marshal when he was Air Officer Scotland at Pitreavie Castle, Fife) earned decorations galore and those, along with the others of his Second World War memorabilia, will attract collectors to the
latest Shapes auction of fine art and antiques at Bankhead Avenue, Sighthill, tomorrow morning at 10am.
Paintings include a Bellany (£2000-£3000) and Archibald Thorburn's Peregrine Falcon and Mallard Duck watercolour going for a more expensive song at around £30k. Alan Sutherland's saucy Female Nude Reclining would warm your front room for the winter at, say, £300.
Director Ally Black, still crowing about Shapes' unique deal on commission at their monthly auctions, still can't get the Athenians out of his system. Legends in their own Edinburgh rock lifetime, he is reforming the band for "just one more time" on October 25, a live performance with the man himself on guitar, in Shapes' classy hidden gem of a restaurant – a sell-out a year ago and near capacity again. Gongs all round at Sighthill.
Buggy on downIT could be a load of goulash but my chums at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences tell me they've discovered that at just a day old, babies have a strong sense of rhythm.
Now there could be more to this than meets a sceptic's eye. Leith Hospital's archive confirms I was born with drums in my ears.
Also I'm informed that, still in my pram, I had rings on my fingers and bells on my toes.
All of which seems to substantiate my claim to be the oldest swinger in town.
Afterwords . .. . .because they'd rarely been seen on television, if at all, Kirsty Wark's knees occasioned the odd ripple of excitement. Come to think of it, we never get to see the perpetually-trousered Kirsty Young's. Has she got any? There'll be speculation about Jackie Bird's next.
Knee specialists in the trade are still wondering, why was Hazel Irvine's new wedding ring kept out of camera range at Birkdale?
The full article contains 365 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
