So as far as the older generation of German Lutherans were concerned, the abolition of the mother language sentenced death upon the church as they knew it.

Anissimov took to posting paranoid white supremacist rants on Twitter. Why, he asked, do “blacks get your own continent”? “European whites are being replaced and destroyed by ‘diversity,’” he cried. He denounced miscegenation and declared that women should be confined to the home.

My intimacy with these sisters goes back as far as my school days at Madame Chegaray's, where Frances Kellogg was a boarding pupil and in a class higher than mine when I was a day-scholar.

Everyone should indulge in a formal afternoon tea at least once while in London. This relaxing, drawn-out, civilized affair consists of three courses, all elegantly served on fine china: dainty finger sandwiches (with the crusts cut off, of course); then fresh-baked scones served with jam and deliciously decadent clotted cream (the rich, thick cream is also known as Devonshire cream); and lastly, an array of bite-size sweets. All the while, an indulgent server keeps the pot of your choice fresh at hand.