Regarding John Miller’s discussion of the merits of Frederick Forsyth books, some years ago I was at a lunch with Forsyth, the actor Edward Fox and Charles de Gaulle (not the Charles, obviously, but his grandson, who was then a Member of the European Parliament, but has since gone over to Le Pen, I think).

Thus, in the same small room there was the man who wrote The Day of the Jackal, the man who played the Jackal in the movie, and the man whose grandfather the Jackal tried to assassinate. And me, of course, but my connection–I had read The Day of the Jackal and seen the movie–was rather more tenuous.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly why I was invited to this lunch. Perhaps I wasn’t but chose to attend anyway.