I experienced what the American self-help guru Dr Phil calls a ‘defining moment’ the other day. I’d just taken stock of my life and, frankly, things didn’t look good. The house I’ve bought in Acton — and which I can’t possibly afford — is already worth less than I paid for it. My wife has expressed a desire to have a fourth child. And I’ve recently been ‘let go’ as the Evening Standard’s restaurant critic.
It was time to act. I would no longer be carried along by events — I would shape my own destiny. In the words of Dr Phil, I would move my ‘self-concept away from a world-defined, fictional self towards a self-defined, authentic self’.
I decided to sell the family silver.
OK, that isn’t strictly true. My paternal grandfather, Gibson Young, was an Australian ne’er-do-well and the only silver his forebears possessed was what they were able to steal from the gentry. Nevertheless, my maternal grandfather, Raisley Moorsom, was able to pass on a few things to my mother and she, in turn, left them to my sister and me. Chief among them were the ‘Order of Sailing’ and the ‘Order of Battle’ for the Battle of Trafalgar — two documents signed by Nelson — and a presentation copy of the Lyrical Ballads, inscribed by Wordsworth himself.
I took them along to Christie’s to be valued and discovered that their combined value might just be enough to pay the mortgage for another year. Clearly, if I was to stave off bankruptcy, they would have to be sold at the soonest available opportunity. All that remained was for me to persuade my sister of the wisdom of this.
‘Over my dead body,’ she said.
She pointed out that the reason we possessed the Nelson papers was that our great, great, great grandfather, Sir Robert Moorsom, was the captain of the Revenge, a ship that played a vital part in the Battle of Trafalgar.
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