Felix Watts OP

.. Back from the kitchen having done most of the preparation of a dessert for tomorrow's leaving lunch for the vicar (the instructions said plenty of chocolate!) - so I've prepared a Tarte Montmartre - you, stop sniggering at the back! - I've done this recipe before but hadn't realised the double meaning until now - far too innocent you see - in future I shall have to call it a Tarte Pigalle.
Anyway before more sermon preparation - and I'm hoping to go to the Wilmslow Symphony Orchestra's performance of Shostakovich 10 this evening - probably my favourite of his symphonies - I've heard it live once before by (I think) the USSR Symphony Orchestra - in Leeds back in the 1980's, which will take some living up to!
Back to the subject of this posting - I saw an obit for Felix Watts in the latest college newsletter and something of what David Isitt wrote is worth repeating:

..he was, in theory at least, a research student of the college, working on Aristotelian arithmetic. It is not clear whether the thesis was ever submitted but rumour said it did not extend beyone one side of A4. What is certain is the Fr Felix, though something of a trial to his fellow Dominicans contributed a great deal to enjoyment of life at the Hall....He was the life and soul of a great many parties and his conversation was much enjoyed for its wealth of 1920s slang. In his last years he embarked on a new edition and translation of the Tome of Leo.

I remember wickedly sending him a postcard of Paul VI to him from a trip to Rome - he wasn't a great fan, but his enjoyment of life and music was most infectious.
Now back to that sermon preparation!