FIRESIDE CHAT WITH SIMON MURRAY
Tuesday 24th September at 18.30 | The Drawing Room and Zoom | £15.00 per person*
*Includes one glass Prosecco
*£10.00 for those joining via Zoom
When Simon Murray appeared on Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs”, the luxury for which he asked ahead of being cast away was “lots of pens and paper”. That is the least he would need to sketch out a life of three parts, all of which should be celebrated as one, with each constituent part also standing alone.
First, he served in the French Foreign Legion during the Algerian War, experiencing combat at close quarters. Then he began a business career in Asia and Hong Kong – where he advised the Governor Chris Patten during the return of the former British colony to China – and sat on the boards of Vodafone, Tommy Hilfiger, Hermes, and America’s General Electric, among others. He also formed the telecommunication concern, Orange, which was ultimately sold for $36 billion. Not satisfied by all that, next up he became, at 64, the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported (which is, whisper it, almost as impressive as his wife, Jennifer, becoming the first women to circumnavigate the globe in a helicopter).
Join Simon, an acclaimed author and broadcaster, at the Drawing Room fireplace for a romp through his trilogy on earth packed into an hour of conversation. Follow this, as is traditional with the Rag Fireside Chat, by joining a select group of members for supper with Simon in the Coffee Room, where dialogue will continue wherever the table wishes to take things.