‘A more hopeful kind of patriotism’: a first-timer goes to the Last Night of the Proms
I was starting to stress about where I could hire a tuxedo from when my editor reassured me. “You don’t have to wear black tie to the Proms!” she laughed. No, not even a suit. Anything is fine, she said. “Really?” I asked, doubtful. My perception of the Last Night of the Proms – a bunch of toffs in dinner jackets braying about Empire, a kind of musical Bullingdon Club – was clearly off the mark. What else had I
