Literary set take the laid-back route

WHILE the rest of London was dripping in jewels and high frocks, the high-brow crowd gathered for the Times Literary Supplement’s party for a dress-down chic, intellectual couture-garb soirée.

Mary Beard was holding court in the charming environs of South Square in Gray’s Inn for the cerebral set, while boulevardier journalist Charles Glass roamed around extolling the virtues of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera staged at Winslow Hall Opera. The Londoner caught writer Ferdinand Mount on the Brexit divisions in his family — he’s a Remainer but his son Harry voted Leave. “He’s very apologetic about it, which makes things easier.”