10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHINA CLUB
IN HONG KONG

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David made a very witty speech. Among other things, he thanked Michael Heseltine for paying for his dinner and made some jibes at some of the 'aristoi' who had not turned up. How many people present appreciated his Greek is unknown, but sometimes David's status as closet intelligentsia peeks out and adds to the general surreal atmosphere of these gatherings.

We all wondered: Was it the world's largest bottle of champagne? Veuve Cliquot tastes the same, whatever the size, but what was especially impressive was the careful angle of the bed of ice. How did they cast the block?

The Old Jazz Band from the famous Peace Hotel. These old-timers played excellent jazz.

On the left is Johnson Chang, David's Taoist philosopher friend. With him are Stephen Feng and Elizabeth Collett, and beside David is Victor Chu.

Anne Heseltine is very delightful and likes to talk about wildflowers and bird- watching. Here she is with David, who is deep in thought.

Michael Heseltine (recently elevated as Lord Heseltine after his retirement from the House of Commons) on the left, and beside him the Hong Kong lawyer Victor Chu. I first met Victor in the 1980s and was later earnestly assured by someone who claimed to have known him well that he was dead. Imagine my surprise when a dead man sat down beside me, with every appearance of being alive. I had seen enough horror movies to be suspicious. I insisted that he couldn't be Victor Chu because Victor Chu was dead, but he assured me that the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. Here he is looking rather pleased at not being dead after all. Michael Heseltine spent much of the evening apparently in a state of private reverie, and I sometimes wondered if he were dreaming of bird-watching.