We spent the weekend in London, where one of my cousins on my late mother’s side of the family was getting married. Over the past five years the family has suffered a number of bereavements, as my parents’ generation has gradually grown old and dwindled away. There are just two representatives of that generation left now, though, thankfully, both are in fine fettle. But it was a wonderful change for the cousins to be meeting up for the joyous occasion of a wedding, rather than the sad series of funerals that have punctuated recent years. Getting the cousins together is a major logistical exercise, with various branches travelling from San Francisco, Cape Town, Prague, Brussels and the Isle of Skye. (Only ill health prevented the Australian contingent from attending.) So we were determined to make the very best of the occasion. It was good to see second cousins (the generation beneath us) getting on so well and the evening’s celebrations included a great live band in which two cousins performed brilliantly. The formal part of the proceedings took place in Islington Town Hall and the festivities in what used to be Finsbury Town Hall. I am always interested by civic architecture and here were two fine examples. There was a plaque in the Finsbury Town Hall commemorating Dadabhai Naoroji, the first British Indian MP. He refused to take his oath on the Bible, preferring the Zoroastrian Avesta. You can read about him here; a fascinating example of a politician straddling two countries and two systems.