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Prayers for Ukraine
Elizabeth Taylor in Oxford, 1966
Liz’s Oxford blues SIR: I read with interest David Wood’s article on Burton and Taylor (February issue). At the time, I was a 20-year-old undergraduate at Merton College, when I and a colleague, Alan Watson, got wind of the two stars coming to lunch with the Fellows. We parked ourselves in Fellows quadrangle early on to catch a glimpse. They were some two hours late but Alan and I stuck it out and were duly rewarded. The most striking memory I have of their visit was the appearance of Elizabeth Taylor. She had wonderful looks and features which, in the flesh, outdid her splendid screen and photographic images. It was really exciting to be so close to a megastar. We took photos of her (pictured) which display a pensive and wistful demeanour. Could she and Burton have had an early-morning tiff? Surely not; they were only two years into their first marriage, which lasted ten years. I attended one of the performances of Doctor Faustus at the Playhouse. It was very good, but I did detect a little slurring of words in Burton’s speech. We all knew he liked his booze, so could he have had a snifter before coming on stage? Yours, Mark Price, Knutsford, Cheshire
44 The Oldie Spring 2022
SIR: Reading A N Wilson’s fascinating article yesterday (November issue) was eerily apposite. Wilson wrote of Norway then, but we are witnessing Ukraine now. Both these young democracies faced/face a grave threat from a megalomaniac invader who wished/wishes to replace the life of freedom enjoyed by the people of those developing nations with a life of tyranny under an alien power. Norway had to suffer much to regain her precious independence, and it seems that Ukraine is being forced to do the same. Britain offered sanctuary to the leadership of Norway so that, when the war was over, Norway could resume her life of freedom. If only that were possible now. I fully support the politicians and diplomats who have been striving so strenuously – and so far successfully – to prevent a Third World War (which would almost certainly turn into a nuclear war). The pity is that the innocent people of Ukraine are having to play the role of whipping boy on behalf of the rest of Europe. I send my prayers and my admiration to the embattled people of Ukraine for their plucky resistance against a powerful, unbalanced bully. Frances Aitken, Littlehampton, West Sussex
The King’s English SIR: Kingsley Amis would have had at least a few words of complaint about Serena Greenslade’s elocution lesson (April issue). For example, on the subject of how many syllables to give a word (Serena suggests five for particularly); in his The King’s English, Amis says that multisyllable pronunciation of certain words ‘is offensive’. His ‘interesting’ is ‘intruh-sting’, ‘temporarily’ is ‘tempraly’, and he says ‘only a wanker makes three syllables of ‘casual’. As for dropping consonants, Amis defends doing so in ‘Christmas’ – and what about ‘Wednesday’? The King’s son Martin has an amusing anecdote in his autobiography Experience in which he shocks his young
sons by explaining that he taught himself to say ‘Mon-dee’ and ‘Tues-dee’, because it sounded posh, and it was cool to be posh in the 1970s. Colin Crews, Westow, North Yorkshire
Grammar lessons SIR: I enjoyed Serena Greenslade’s article (‘How to talk proper’, April issue). I concur with all she says but feel she has left out some very common current grammatical aberrations. Why do people say ‘sat’ when they mean ‘sitting’? And, likewise, ‘stood’ when it should be ‘standing’? Also very common: ‘were’ when it should be ‘was’. I have noticed these errors even among TV presenters – including a knight of the realm! Surely programme directors should remind them not to do it? Why don’t people try (just try) to not start sentences with ‘So’ unless it is applicable, like using it instead of ‘Therefore’. Even this is common on the BBC. I must admit to doing it myself, but kick myself when I do! Another one: ‘wow’. Please try a more original expletive occasionally. A few people on The Repair Shop do actually succeed in avoiding ‘wow’. Does all this matter? I suppose not in the world order of things, but it irritates some people and it is the small things that annoy. Personally, I like train stations to be referred to as ‘railway stations’, as they always used to be but, hey ho, I can’t argue with the logic – so there it is. James Crawshaw, Battle, East Sussex
Alistair MacLean’s double SIR: In the early 1970s, Roy Plomley was keen to get the novelist Alistair MacLean on to his programme Desert Island Discs. It was only during an excellent lunch at the Savile Club in London that questioning revealed that the Alistair Maclean who was Mr Plomley’s guest was in charge of the Ontario Tourist Board, not the great novelist. Nonetheless, after lunch, the two set off for the studio and made the recording. Needless to say that programme was never broadcast. Yours faithfully, Charles Halliday, Warminster, Wiltshire
