The Old Un’s Notes
There’ll be Spitfires over the White Cliffs of Dover
Were you one of those schoolboys who in 1973 salivated about the new range of ‘pocket money’ model kits of tanks, warplanes and ships? The Matchbox kits were cheap and simple to make, with tremendous, nostalgic power for Second World War buffs. Fans will love The Golden Years of Matchbox Art, a new book by Roy Huxley, now in his eighties. Huxley painted the pictures for practically all the boxes over nearly 20 years. Here is his stirring picture of the Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, Britain’s most famous short-range, high-performance Second World War aircraft, with its Merlin engine and its distinctive roar. More than 20,000 of them were built between 1938 and 1948. The Mk IX was the most-produced version after it entered service in 1942. Chocks away, chaps!
Fran Lebowitz, the New York writer, is only 70 but she’s long since established herself as an oldie deity – as the goddess of grumbling.
She’s been famous in New York for over half a century, since Andy Warhol hired her as a columnist on his Interview magazine. But she’s only just beginning to be appreciated this side of the pond, thanks to the series of interviews she gave to Martin Scorsese this year in the Netflix series Pretend It’s a City. Now oldies can luxuriate in her heavenly grumbles in The Fran Lebowitz Reader (Virago), published this September. Here is her golden advice to teenagers: ‘Think before you speak. Read before you think. This will give you
Among this month’s contributors David Bailey took our front-cover picture of the Kray twins in 1965. Bailey says, ‘I quite liked Reg even though, when he was 19, he slashed my father’s face with a razor. Ron was a basket full of rattlesnakes.’ Mary Beard (p18) is Professor of Classics at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Newnham College. Her latest book is Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern. Nemone Lethbridge (p14) is one of Britain’s earliest female barristers, called to the Bar in 1956. She is author of Nemone: A young woman barrister’s battle against prejudice, class and misogyny. Henry Blofeld (p16) began writing about cricket, for the Times, in 1962. In 1972, he first appeared on Test Match Special. His new book is Ten to Win ... and the Last Man In: My Pick of Test Match Cliffhangers.
something to think about that you didn’t make up yourself – a wise move at any age, but most especially at 17, when you are in danger
Queen of the grumblers: Fran Lebowitz
of coming to annoying conclusions.’ Another of her wise suggestions to the young is ‘Remember that as a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy that the phone is for you.’ Best of all, though, is her eternal wisdom on why we all get annoyed but shouldn’t try to destroy the person who annoys us. She wrote it long before Cancel Culture became a thing, but it has never been so true: ‘I would be the very last to criticise the annoyed. I myself find many – even most – things objectionable. Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one’s home. I do not like aftershave lotion, adults who roller-skate, children who speak French or anyone who is unduly tan. I do not, however, go around The Oldie October 2021 5
