Coming into London by train from the South East today I looked across at Tower Bridge on the starboard bow a mile before coming into London Bridge Station. Then turning my gaze to the port side the London Eye appeared up ahead ...visible from quite a long way away. Once clear of Waterloo Station the train passes the London Eye on the south bank and crosses the River Thames by Hungerford Bridge...its two new pedestrian bridges flanking it on either side. This is the final leg of the journey which terminates at Charing Cross Station on the far side of the bridge.

Crossing the river at this point provides one of the best views in London with Big Ben over to port rising above the Gothic splendour of the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. On the starboard bow behind you is the South Bank...Festival Hall, National Theatre etc...and over to the right the relatively modern and elegant Waterloo Bridge. I always hope the train will be held on the bridge for a few minutes so I can linger awhile and enjoy the glorious view.

Passing out of Charing Cross Station to The Strand I noticed that Nelson’s Column was no longer adorned with advertisements…the latest way to wrap scaffolding in London…and was once again gleaming white in the midday sun. Standing in the corner of Trafalgar Square furthest from the fourth plinth…a monument to political correctness and quite ridiculous in context…I chanced upon a notice of the bylaws applicable to Trafalgar Square to which the Common Seal of the Greater London Authority had been duly affixed on the twenty fourth day of July 2000.

Bylaw Five caught my eye. Among the ‘acts within the square for which written permission is required unless acting in accordance with permission given in writing by the Mayor or any person authorised by the Mayor under Section 380 of the Act to give such permission’ was [Clause 4] ‘to play or cause to be played any musical instrument’.

The public were also enjoined [Clause 6] ‘to refrain from discharging any weapon which is a firearm within the meaning of Section 52 of the Firearm Act 1968’ and [Clause 18] ‘to desist from towing or leaving any caravans in the square’. But such is the tilt of my mind that this condition of music making put me in mind of the small town of Valladolid at the time of the Spanish Civil War where wandering musicians were required to obtain a licence.

Have you ever tried to obtain a Street Musician’s Licence? No I thought not. But as it has changed little and the saga is repeated thousands of times a day all over the world I thought I would let you know how to go about it in Spain...by citing from the fifth chapter of Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. Five chapters later he is in Castillo where he finds he has walked into the start of the Spanish Civil War...extracts next week.

The closest I ever got to being a street fiddler was 2-years of violin lessons at school which left me capable of making a noise but without the ability to entertain or delight. I was reminded of my other encounter with violinism by the recent announcement that André Previn’s fifth marriage had ended. The apparent reason for the failure of the 4-year relationship was the 34-year age gap between the great conductor and his elegant violinist...Previn is 77 and Anne-Sophie Mutter is 43. But there is a problem.

In 1971 a few weeks before I left Stockholm for Johannesburg an Old Blues cricketing chum David Gowan phoned from the UK and asked me to help arrange a Scandinavian tour for a young violinist he was managing...you are there already...her name was Anne-Sophie Mutter. She was 17 at the time.

Earlier this week I set out the synopsis of the first three parts of The King of Buen Consejo…and indicated that I had worked out the fourth part…but was keeping the plot under wraps. I have relented. The Royalist Party comes to power with a Party Manifesto that I wrote several years ago but updated last year to include the immediate declaration upon taking office of an amargi...first used in Babylon 5000 years ago...to cancel debts and renew society.

The Republic Strikes Back will be the sequel. The Prime Minister is disgraced after an Audit Commission’s Report on corruption and is banished to Belgium...or the Spanish Netherlands as it was known after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648...and before Austria ousted Spain and claimed it. Here our new European bureaucrat persuades the Boys in Bruges to put up the money for a second English Civil War...which he wins thereby setting in motion another Changing of the Guard as Our Great Leader rides down The Mall at the head of his victorious Mercenary Army.

Meanwhile our king takes a leaf out of King James II’s book and does a runner...but heads for a Russian Orthodox Monastery in Kerelia instead of getting the Irish massacred by launching an invasion from Wexford. A decade later we will reinstate the monarchy with the king's daughter ascending the English throne. But I must find the right husband for her for which I have a fiendish plan...I need £ 3000 to get myself to Lund for the winter. Here’s the deal.

For £15000 I will write the book over the winter and in return you get some equity. What a wonderful opportunity for a Bollywood Costume Drama. For a further £10000 my partner(s) may write into the contract the specification for the queen's husband...Product Placement...just as long as he does not come from Athens or Alexandria...that’s been tried...but from somewhere like Bangalore or Chengdu. Offers on a postcard please to Box 36, Rye TN31 7WP.