Talking chess at The Bonkers' Arms

If, as literary scholars increasingly maintain, Bonkers Hall was modelled on Nevill Holt, then Medbourne must be the inspiration for the village at its gates.

Which means that the Nevill Arms in Medbourne must be the inspiration for the Bonkers' Arms, that source of good beer, good conversation and good political sense..

If I am honest, the Neville Arms is rather neater than I imagine the Bonkers' Arms. Nor does it serve Smithson & Greaves Northern Bitter.

But it is a good pub and also home to cafe that serves food in the courtyard all day.

When I arrived there after photographing Nevill Holt I found that someone I work with in Leicester was there with her husband, who used to be one of Leicestershire's best chess players.

I first met him back in the 1970s when his mother gave me a lift to a tournament in Kettering.

We talked of chess openings and Leicestershire players that are gone.