John Elkington

Having gone to prep school at Glencot, near Wookey Hole, I have long been in love with Wells Cathedral – particularly the stairway up to the Chapter House. Wonderful winged sculptures in the Bishop’s Palace Gardens. But sadly a bit too early for the ripe mulberries I remember from a very long time ago.

A series of fascinating visits in the area, including Muchelney Abbey in wonderfully atmospheric rain and, the next day, the Willow & Wetlands Centre, with a cradle-to-grave approach covering everything from, literally, cradles to coffins. A nice walk through the woods down to the banks of the River Tone, with buzzards spiralling above the woods nearby.

Also visited the Perry’s Cider Works, though the signage getting there was appalling and, at least to my taste, the ciders were less appealing than the Henney’s cider we get from Waitrose. But diversity, they say, is the key to life.

 

 

Very much liked the Kitchen at the Wharf, Bow Street, in Langport, near North Curry where we stayed three nights. Bought a couple of things at Shakespeare Glass & Arts. Wonderful to see glass being spun and worked.

The first morning at the old farmhouse where we were staying we woke up to find no fewer than three ambulances in the drive outside. A gas man had arrived early to recharge the gas tanks, but – when lifting the manhole cover – had disturbed a nest of wasps. Later in the day, a white van arrived to tackle the problem – and found a total of four nests.

We drove across to Radstock yesterday to stay with a cousin, Simon Mills, and his family. Haven’t seen him since he moved into a rather substantial new home that was at the end of his older garden. Great fun, though animated disagreements over Brexit.

Wonderful opportunity to catch up – including seeing a photo of the old British aircraft carrier, HMS Eagle, which I was taken aboard in Cyprus in the late 1950s. Courtesy, I think, of Admiral John Frewen.

Still remember the extraordinary cobalt blue colour of the Mediterranean looking down from the vessel’s deck. Interesting angle of view, given the current fuss about Britain’s seemingly toothless new carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Simon has developed an extensive optician’s business in the region, but is also – among other things – a beekeeper. He showed us some of his 20-plus hives, and we would come away from our second stay, on our way home, with jars of clear and set honey. Plus eggs from his chickens and ducks.

Yesterday saw the (very) successful completion of our second Basecamp, this one hosted by UBS and focusing on the confluence of money, data and trust. Our hosts were Howard Kemp and Giles Sibbald.

I had worried that we would fail to match the excitement and impact of our Carbon Productivity Basecamp at the RSA on 14 June, but – in slightly different ways – they both worked wonderfully well.

The images above capture the spirit of the latest event. But it’s hard to take images when you’re one of the facilitators, which I was – kicking off with a session featuring three giants in the space: Mark Campanale, Nick Robins and Tessa Tennant. I have known  all three for pushing 30 years – and between them they have helped create many key initiatives in the space.

The previous evening we hosted a dinner for 24 of the participants at Somerset House, in the Drawing Room restaurant. Extremely hot, with London temperatures and humidity pushing all our envelopes. Some  sense of the space can be found here, though we had it arranged with two long tables. Great food – and the energy in the room could have powered a small city.

During the Basecamp, the Atlas of the Future team filmed a series of interviews with selected speakers, who included Mark, Tessa, Nick, UBS Global Chief Economist Paul Donovan, Jamie Arbib and Henrik Olsén of Rethinking Capital, Jeremy Openheim of SYSTEMIQ, Steve Waygood of Aviva, and Sacha Romanovitch of Grant Thornton.

Key content on the event, including edited versions of the filmed interviews, will be published shortly.

After the reception that followed the event, held in one of the UBS atriums overlooking things like a bulldozer being hoisted by a crane into a difficult-to-reach part of a nearby construction site, a group of us went off to have a celebratory dinner.

We stumbled upon The Holy Birds which, as Jacqueline put it, ticked pretty much all my boxes. Great food, including a fondue made with Hoxton Gin, delightful service, a great acoustic environment (because the place was virtually empty apart from us) and a stream of wonderful music from the Sixties (e.g. Cream, Donovan, Stones, Them, Yardbirds). And great conversations, including with Kaye Allen, who joined the Volans team on Monday.