THE City’s unofficial poet in residence holds the first reading of his new work next month, on July 22 at Guildhall Art Gallery. B. H. “Benjie” Fraser will read from his City Poems collection, which are all about working in the City.

Try Bonus Time: “Bonus time follows spring/Cheapside’s peace threatened by sheep/Masses of small specks flooding a green field/Beneath the Barbican . . .”

Fraser writes his poems during business trips around Europe.

Also at the event, and reading selections from his work, the playwright Harold Pinter, who is, by coincidence, Benjie’s stepfather. I think we can assume his choices will not include God Bless America: “Here they go again,/The Yanks in their armoured parade/Chanting their ballads of joy/As they gallop across the big world/Praising America’s God.”

It would be, at best, tactless. Fraser, in his day job, is the London managing director of the Bank of New York.

A SURVEY on neighbours from King Sturge Residential, the estate agent, asks, among other things, whom you would least wish to live next door to. Liam Gallagher tops the poll (the parties?), followed by, with almost a quarter of the votes, Tony Blair. (The security? The all-pervading stink of sanctimoniousness?) I wonder if they asked Gordon Brown.

Hounded toad

THE British Land report and accounts arrives, and the theme this year is children’s literature and accompanying cartoons — the company supports Reading is Fundamental UK, which encourages children to read.

Some of the selections seem to have been chosen with care. The section on management, governance and corporate responsibility, an area that has given British Land some heartache in the past, is illustrated by a Hoffnung cartoon of a despairing dog owner being besieged by two hounds. “Just tick the box . . . The arrival of another doorstep-sized CSR questionnaire is greeted by scenes of wild elation.”

Chairman John Ritblat’s statement is fronted by a picture of Mr Toad. I am assured this was his personal choice. I leave those who know Ritblat well to make any possible connection. “Pip, pip! I’m off to the races,” is his only comment.

CURIOUS scenes after the Mansion House dinner, when pudding, coffee and port arrived almost simultaneously. “They were just slapping things down,” says my source. Guests were wondering about this sudden excess of zeal when technicians started to set up lights and cameras. Gordon Brown was understandably keen to make the ten o’clock news.

Job lot

TODAY’S “sit vac” is at the Committee on Standards in Public Life, where Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger has stood down and they are looking for a new member. Part-time, and you get a daily attendance allowance of £180 in return for a “commitment to the need to maintain the highest standards of public life”.

The job specifications contain a rider that is, as far as I am aware, unique. “Applicants will be aware that this is a high-profile appointment. Their own conduct may be subject to public scrutiny.”

No hidden vices, please.

city.diary@thetimes.co.uk

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