tate liverpool annual dinner

The invitation had called for people to attend in "colourful" dress to celebrate the Colour Chart exhibition (which ended on Sunday).
Alas, I'd been hoping to wear black but chickened out of my Merle Oberon moment (she apparently once turned up to a Hollywood black and white ball in flaming red!) and opted for muted mulberry instead.
It was easy enough for the ladies, but for men the colour challenge was a little more, well, challenging. Luckily there were no Timmy Mallett technicolor suits on show, but I did see stained glass style bow ties, colourful shirts and at least one pair of red loafers.
Sir Nicholas (in sober garb) gave a heartfelt tribute to Tate Liverpool and its amazing 2008 which saw one millon visitors come through the door.
The guest speaker was Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow who gave an entertaining, though I suspect ever so slightly embroidered, account of his exploits as a student protester at Liverpool University.
Snow described how, as the only one with plummy public school tones, he was dispatched by the student rebels to meet a visiting Lord Salisbury off the train at Lime Street and explain their grievances.
They repaired to the Adelphi for tea where Lord S agreed to cancel his trip and revealed he really didn't want to visit anyway.
Snow was subsequently suspended from the university, and never went back to complete his degree.
However, how times change. A little bird tells me he may well be given an HONORARY degree in the near future by the very university which invited him to leave in the first place.