The Old Un’s Notes think he has the world’s greatest voice…
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Dolly: singer and novelist
Move over, Dickens and Tolstoy! Dolly Parton is publishing her first novel. The great country singer has written Run Rose Run, out on 7th March, with the mega-selling American novelist James Patterson. Rose is ‘a star on the rise, singing about the hard life behind her. She’s also on the run. Find a future, lost a past. Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny… Run Rose Run is a novel glittering with danger and desire.’ What energy Dolly, who’s 76 on 19th January, has. She’s also releasing an album of the same name – Run Rose Run – with 12 original songs she was inspired by the book to write and record. Tracks include Firecracker and Big Dreams and Faded Jeans. What an inspirational idea – for writers to record albums inspired by their books. Still, it’s hard to think of writers with exceptional musical talents like Dolly – though surely Jeffrey Archer must
As the last issue of The Oldie reported, the new film Operation Mincemeat tells the tale of the great 1943 British intelligence coup – when the body of a Welsh tramp was dumped off the Spanish coast, with false Allied invasion plans in his pocket. ‘Wallet litter’ was placed in the tramp’s wallet – items such as his girlfriend’s picture – to make him look convincing. Now Oldie-reader David Shacklock has sent in his ‘pocket litter’ – the items he found in an old tweed jacket before
it was downgraded to gardening status. Here is the list of what he found in the jacket’s pockets: angle bracket with one-and-ahalf-inch screw; hearing-aid battery; remainder of packet of Polo mints; packet of vine eyes; picture-hook nail; two lengths of garden-plant tie (rubberised); length of garden-plant tie (plasticised); shaped wire-holder for loo roll; packet of staples; length of coarse string; length of twine; uneaten Cafe Crisp; metal washer; 5p coin; 1p coin; wiring screw eye for brick wall; Zebra biro; ‘Xtra strong’ tote bag; cable tie; clothes peg; drawing pin.
Among this month’s contributors David Wood (p14) played Johnny in Lindsay Anderson’s if… (1968). He was in Aces High (1976). He set up the Whirligig Theatre and wrote The Gingerbread Man (1976). Rev Peter Mullen (p19) is the former Rector of St Michael, Cornhill, and St Sepulchre-without-Newgate. He is Chaplain to the Honourable Company of Air Pilots and the London Stock Exchange.
Have any other readers managed to squeeze so much pocket litter into a single item of clothing? January 5th was the 120th anniversary of the birth of poet and novelist Stella Gibbons (1902-89). It is also 90 years since the publication of her first and best-known novel, Cold Comfort Farm (1932). Oldie contributor Mark Bryant met her in 1983 at one of her monthly tea parties in her mock-Tudor house on the Holly Lodge estate, north London. She smoked an occasional cigarette and complained of a rheumatic thumb, which she said made reading paperbacks difficult as she was unable to hold them open. Sherry and snacks were served. Stella asked Mark to open two bottles of white wine, remarking, ‘My two vices are the Wine Society and having my tea cloths laundered.’ She added that the greatest
Lady Colin Campbell (p36) is better known as ‘Lady C’. She is the author of Meghan and Harry: The Real Story and The Real Diana. She was in the 2015 series of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here. Peter York (p24) wrote The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook with Ann Barr in 1982. He co-founded the management consultancy SRU. He is the author of Dictators’ Homes (2005).
Warm comfort: Stella Gibbons (1902-89) The Oldie February 2022 5
