Readers’ Letters

The Oldie, 23–31 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7PA letters@theoldie.co.uk To sign up for our e-newsletter, go to www.theoldie.co.uk

Which side do you dress?

SIR: I write in respect of the article ‘Gentleman’s Relish’ by Mark Palmer (Spring issue).

I too was brought up in Reading in the 1950s, though not, as I suspect in Mr Palmer’s case, as a scion of the excellent company that manufactured biscuits right next to Reading Gaol.

However, I have to question Mr Palmer’s memories of a bespoke tailor asking the question ‘And which way do you hang, sir?’ Any respectable bespoke tailor or gentleman’s outfitter of the time would have asked, ‘Which side do you dress, sir?’

An issue never addressed by Levi Strauss, I imagine. Ian R A Brown, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Black Country blues

SIR: Jonathan Meades’s article (April issue), headed ‘Lucky Brummies’, is excellent all round – particularly in bringing attention to the new Pevsner. But it is wrong to elide Birmingham and the Black Country (my country). They are mutually exclusive. The Black Country is defined by the coalfield on which it is set. Birmingham stands outside.

The elision was particularly unfortunate given the juxtaposition of the article heading and the first paragraph which suggests that, at least when the coalfield was operational, those who lived outside it were the lucky ones. Those of us from the Black Country have always been happy as well as proud of the fact, ta muchly aer kid. Gary Hickinbottom, Walsall (but, alas, currently London SW10)

RIP Captain Pettiward

SIR: The Old Un’s Notes (Spring issue) made reference to the sad death of the cartoonist Roger Pettiward, almost 80 years ago, at the age of 35. May I add a footnote?

On 19th August 1942, Capt Pettiward was leading F Troop, No 4 Commando during the attempt to capture the occupied port of Dieppe. At that point in his life, he Spectator, led to Pettiward’s joining Fleming for an expedition to Brazil. Their purpose was to determine the fate of the explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett, who had disappeared in the Mato Grosso seven years earlier. No trace of Fawcett was found, but Fleming’s first book, Brazilian Adventure, was published the following year. Simon Courtauld, All Cannings, Wiltshire

was older even than his own commanding officer, Lt Col Lord Lovat. However, he was about to take part in what is regarded as the only truly successful action in that misguided operation.

No 4 Commando was tasked with scaling the cliffs at Varengeville, three miles to the west of the town, and silencing a large German coastal battery that posed a serious threat to the invaders. This it did, in what has been described many times since as a text-book assault. One of his colleagues, Capt Pat Porteous, was awarded the VC for his part in the action.

Sadly, in the midst of very hard hand-to-hand fighting, Capt Pettiward was shot and killed by the defending forces. In his memoirs, Lord Lovat described his death as one of his own saddest personal losses of the war. Capt Pettiward is commemorated on the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial in Surrey, having no known grave. John Martin, Holt, Norfolk

Peter Fleming in Brazil

SIR: Not only was Roger Pettiward a well-known cartoonist, under the pseudonym Paul Crum (The Old Un’s Notes, Spring issue); in 1932 he became an intrepid explorer.

A chance encounter with his Etonian and Oxford contemporary Peter Fleming, outside the London offices of the

‘So, would this be a journey you’re going on, or a “journey”?’

Split opinion

SIR: If James Crawshaw (Spring issue) is going to be picky about grammar, perhaps he should correct the following: ‘Why don’t people try to not start sentences…’ Gosh, the mind boggles at what my English teacher would have said!

I cannot help you if you are unclear about the errors. John Elder, Angus, Scotland

Bowles on the ball

SIR: Thank you to Gyles Brandreth for his moving tribute to Peter Bowles (Spring issue), an actor I have long admired.

Peter shared my five minutes of fame way back in 1964. I was 12 years old when we appeared in an episode of the police series No Hiding Place. As a young fan, I was at the ground of Crystal Palace Football Club watching the players train when a film crew turned up to shoot some establishing shots around a story about the murder of the club manager, as I recall. Peter was playing one of the footballers (Joe Bask).

When most of the young fans were ushered out, I hung back and was asked by the director to walk up and get an autograph from Peter’s character as he sat on a bench talking to another ‘player’. We had it in the can in about three takes, I remember, and I was given a pound note, with thanks.

We had no recording facilities in those days, of course, so the whole family was around the telly a few weeks later to see it go out – the only time I have ever seen it. It was a thrilling moment for me and I’ve bored people with this story over the years, many of them too young even to know what No Hiding Place is. Peter, of

course, deservedly went on to much greater things.

RIP to an actor of real class. Tony Peters, East Grinstead, West Sussex

Facing the Grim Reaper

SIR: In Gyles Brandreth’s Diary (Spring issue) he discusses the end of life and how well actors deal with it. It is not only actors who have this ability.

I am just an ordinary citizen, but on hearing the cancer had reappeared I decided not to have further treatment and to spend my remaining time enjoying every day. I have also planned my funeral. I was given months and not years to survive, but have succeeded in passing the anniversary of this announcement. Positive thinking is the answer to the end of life.

No, Mr Brandreth, it is not just actors who handle these things well. Heather Rodrick, East Bridgford, Nottingham

In praise of libraries

SIR: As a lifelong (73 soon) supporter and user of public libraries on three continents, I was appalled and distressed to read of Sophia Waugh’s school having no library (Spring issue).

Without my high-school library (USA), no homework would ever have been done (I both did it and read fiction copiously). Neither would I have had the delights of being introduced to many authors – some even now, in the 21st century, having films and TV series made/remade from their works.

A favourite vignette from my career as a children and families social worker in Norfolk dates from the 1980s, when one of our teenage young women said she never went anywhere without a book that she was reading (perhaps she is now a writer).

Surely public and school libraries are a mark of true civilisation, democracy and community?

Not surprisingly, the Big Issue magazine for the homeless includes strong support for public libraries and literacy.

We need them! Long live books and reading for all! Yours faithfully, Mike Macartney-Filgate, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Cruel Virginia

SIR: I hope I’m not the only reader who was dismayed, not to say appalled, by Virginia Ironside’s advice to the hapless woman who had gained weight during lockdown and whose partner no longer found her sexually attractive (‘I’m too fat for him’, Spring issue).

Virginia’s suggestion that she lose weight and think of it as ‘an act of kindness’ beggars belief and borders on cruelty.

There are good reasons for someone who is overweight to lose some weight, but pleasing someone else, whether it’s a sexual partner, an adult child or an interfering parent, isn’t one of them.

May I suggest that your reader take her problem to Mumsnet, where she will undoubtedly receive a more sympathetic and robust response, probably along the lines of ‘LTB’. That’s ‘Leave the bastard’ for those unfamiliar with Mumsnet parlance. Kind regards, Jane Ainsworth, Ponteland, Northumberland

‘Well, I suppose we could start with his listening skills’

Easter music

SIR: I would like to thank Sister Teresa for her explanation of George Herbert’s poem Easter.

I was aware of it only through singing many years ago as a member of a Choral Society. The work is a setting of five poems by Ralph Vaughan Williams entitled Five Mystical Songs. I will now hear it with new ears! If anyone has never heard this music, give it a whirl. Sublime. Yours, Helen Pitt, Elmsett, Suffolk

Sharp Miss Marple

SIR: As played by Joan Hickson, Miss Marple was no frump (‘Farewell to frumps’, Spring issue). She was never a ‘nice’ old lady, with her all-seeing cold blue eyes and mind like a bacon slicer, and those well-cut (if old) tweed suits and alligator handbag exempt her from any possible charge of frumpiness. Yours, Hugh Raffam, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

Engineering the future

SIR: Thank you, Alan Mordey, for ‘Engineer abuse’ (Rant, Spring issue). One attribute that separates us from ‘the rest’ is a passion for truth – because you cannot create anything of worth with a lie.

I never belonged to any institution because institutions corrupt and fossilise; my current work in tidal energy transcends the knowledge of institutions, who are of ‘yesterday’, whereas I am far ahead in ‘tomorrow’ – which is what creative innovation is. Yours faithfully, M R Burn (80), HND Mech Eng, Leek, Staffordshire

Holy cow!

SIR: Re John Lloyd’s ‘Quite Interesting Things about … cows’ (Spring issue): the final item in the list (‘The Vatican uses milk from the Pope’s cows to paint its buildings’) reminded me of the following gem, from a list of ‘schoolboy howlers’ or ‘daffy definitions’ I must have found in some humorous publication in the 1960s or earlier:

‘Papal Bull: an animal kept to provide milk for the Pope’s children.’ Yours, George Walker, Worthing, West Sussex

Ladies’ personal services

SIR: I love browsing the classified section of The Oldie, and chuckle at the ads for ‘discerning gentlemen’ from slim/ attractive/understanding ladies offering particular services. I wonder about us ‘discerning’ ladies, and where the ads are that might enable us to benefit from these similar ‘services’. Or maybe we just go on long walks! Judith Bretherton, Bromley, Kent

Ingrams’s artists

SIR: In your 30th-anniversary (March) issue, I was disappointed that in the tribute to Richard Ingrams there was no mention of his choice of artists to design headings for articles.

They were Philip Thompson and wood-engraver John O’Connor. How about giving us an article in praise of their work in a future Oldie? Yours faithfully, Shirley Page, Caxton, Cambridgeshire