1954-03-27 — Page 8

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH

book_certain

27,1954

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY of

to

sweep to startling success

'Getting to grips' with DOUGLAS

BADER

by Paul Brickhill

T the end of the research on my book Reach for the Sky, (Collins) Group

Captain Bader said uneasily that he was feeling "too ruddy naked."

Between periods of charm he growled often--but this time with reason, because the book was an experiment and he was the guinea-pig, For eight months I had used a recording machine on him, and he had talked frankly without trying to glorify himself,

and

The project was launched over dinner at the Belfry Club in 1961. Bader I had both flown Spitfires and Hurricanes in the war and had both baled out, to spend yours in German prison camps.

We both used rude language and disliked pompous officials, and with that much in common Bader suggested over cigars that I might not

abominable a mess of his story.

I took over all his writings, about 100,000 words in which he had re- corded the momentous

things that had happened to him. Also his flying log- book, combat reports, and over 2,000 letters, clip- pings, photographs, oddments.

and

make too

To put meat

these

solid bones he submitted to over 123 hour sessions with the recording machine, exhausting

process

utt

but

seldom dul because Douglas Bader is an unpredictable

mixture of public school and uninhibited pirate.

Mostly we met at night in his flat, myself in

chair, beer in

arm.

one hand,

microphone in the other,

Douglas opposite

AT WORK

AT PLAY

Douglas Bader hoists a leg into his Spitfire. a wartime picture. And demonstrates a golfer's determination--and championship technique (right).

the ings 011

of 031 athlete

never met before once asked me what

was the hardest thing to do without legs. I told her it was drying me stern while sitting on a stool after a bath. She was speech- less first time in years, they told me."

who had no legs. Later I realised sofa, putling a cigar and wakes up in hospital to find how seldom he himself can persistently trying to cross both his legs cut off. forget. That was in 1962 He never played golf till his legs that will cross

when I spoiled his holiday by going down with got down to a handicap of annual he lost both legs, and he easily, and Thelma, his wife. sewing in another chair, un

him and Thelma to Cornwall four. That is championship obtrusive and an unruffled

together with the hated re- standard and is reached by and effective referee when

cording machine.

about one two-legged golfer needed.

Disconcerting

My hopes were felled. He said: "My dear chap, didn't mind a bit."

He persisted with that line until 1 thought he was being blockheaded more or less said so.

and

In a lull from recording in a hundred. we went out to play Unlike

normal

1

man,

REACHE THE SK

THE AUTHOR

forefront in the

LET ME INTRODUCE THE FRENCH

SHION IN MIXED DR

The Entente Cocktail

or When Is Rain?

By RENE MacCOLL

Hero the

translation:

2 version:

NY lingering doubts I performing the operation l'Amour" (loose

have harboured from a height” (lo show- "Love Impeller")...

wheeling approach of the of lemon before serving."" ono-third cream of hazel nuts;

Then there is the Blood doded boire

que-ihird Calvados, And, it is d'un' trait," "knock it back in

Amare have the tree manship). Add a slice of Dudhird cream of moka codes

French to the subject of dcktails have been dispelled by a new book on the sub- Hound"a' dash of atraw meaning fect, by two Gallic

berry syrup, three ripe one.”

On-

thusiasts, which I have just strawberries, one-third of a read.

glass of Vermouth, two-

In Sam's Bar thirds of a glass of gin."WELL, now, 'ere we are in lo Not since I first read Feed me one of those and I Wires chloprosque cadbar "Dracula" as an impression- am Ilable to start baying du cocktail. Eet ces called Sam's able lad of 12 have I found like a bloodhound myself. myself in the grip of 80 eerie a work. I longed to put it down but was com-

And lemon

ПUR audacious

French

EX-

to

Bar. Et volja Sam 'eemselt UCE sen posection, ready serveces, so doesteengueeshed and cosmopolite clientele.

Pal Ere comes to Marquis

la Marquise.

pelled to read on, driven by perils, not content with such do Toulouse-Blfteck et Maduma

I know not what macubre fascination.

unlikely prescriptions, venture misguidedly into the field of to embellish them. Anglo-Saxon titles with which

consisting

Madame la Marquise: Morn- ing. Sam, Give me a When is Rain and don't spare the bit- ter Compari.

Consider, if you can bring yourself to, the Stout Cock-

One such potion, tail. The ingredients: Two dashes of orange bitters on two-thirds Bourbon whisky, is Marquis?

of one-third bitter Campari end Sam And for Monsieur lo half a lump of sugar. Three enigmatically entitled "When Is dashes of Cointreau. Com- Rali" (When a rain? Do plete by gently pouring in a you know?) "esh" glass of English stout. Add 蟲 orange rind and serve.

Gin Crusta: "Garnish:

Madame (with a slightly con- hus- temptuous glance at her band, who is looking all of his

Hound.

sliver of cocktail glass with half the rinde today): For him? A Bipod (spiralled), two Eriter iwo British tourists, white-heart cherries, and

Handles, please

In

of a lemon

little caliar of hoar frost.

shyly.

Ellarg

flookitty up from his

"Add Juice of half a lemon, oranges and lemon rind and AND how about astonish bitters, dash of Maraschino, cherries);

Bravo! A Blue dash of Curacao, ing your guests

and glass of Blazer, yes please? aome English gin, One.may completo time with a Blue Blazer? with either soda water or cham British husband: Wel-i-11,. Here's the way

it goes: pugne" (depending, presumably, (But Sam has already started.) "Use

two silver goblets, on the solvency of the man buy- Oh, I say, dear, look. The fellow fortified with handles.

ing the round).

ls using

two silver goblets foriined with handles. Why do the one place a glassful of "But"-the snob touch-in we never seem to got this sort whisky; in the other boiling the event of champagne being of thing back in Streatham? water and powdered sugar, tumbler,

chosen, one should serve in A

ornamented Heat the whisky until

by a As curtain slowly descenda it whole rind of bursts into flames

(spiralled) British husband is surrepti- then lemon."

tiously substituting his Blue empty it into the warm

Blazer for the When It Rain of water. Transfer

These Frenchmen being what the marquise. Not that it will several they are, we encounter not one help much. subject times from goblet to goblet, but two drinks entitled "Pousso

No author has swept to the postwar years more quickly and assured- ly than Paul Brickhill.

Like Douglas Bader,

of his latest book, this Austra Han Journalist flow against the Luftwaffe and

was shot down.

*# prison camp ho col- tected the raw

to

material for bis Escape first book,

on Danger. Later Great Escape

followed The

and the stirring

Dam Busters.

PAUL BRICKHILL.

Brickhill is a writer who captured the spirit

-London Express Service) ~

THE GLAMOROUS JEAN FIGHTS BY HER JOE

New York.

From Evelyn Irons

himself a small Washington.

home

Was

In chim spell, Jeannie, who

brought up a Scottish Presby- teriam, yielded

W McCarthy has been His only daughter went to have a priest testruct here. In

you prod

golf.

One

the night when mad, research was over I noticed He said: "My dear chap, Douglas, the iron would you kindly get it into usually plays two rounds a tunic bearing a couple of un- in his wardrobe his R.A.F.

no gradual your unbelievably THERE Was

thick day. This time, after the usual ribbons that I recog- revelation of personality because it hits pened and you don't. you like a bolting stream. I'm telling you what hap- afternoon. roller first time you meet pened. I do not happen to him, a glowing, dominating be a liar." charm that can change to disconcerting brusqueness. Douglus.

Bader's akull that I know what hap- morning round, he suggested ised as well as the double markable patience. So did Jean, has to her furious beauty queen of the campus in moved into their first real home

At first I wan

And we

It WBS some

work instead in the

skin had been rubbed raw

and all round the top of the thigh ran circular weal.

Hair-raising

to the face with

She

Rarely Seen

She

of wartime Ille. Now, in his | ▼ITH I LE Senator thirties, ho travels the world. His talents ensure his income.

blustering his way through and finally graduated in journal- McCarthy's Roman Catholic his big battle with the US. tsm at North Western University faith which she eventually. Army, his 29-year-old wife, in Illinois. Real explosions were rare.

It was there she was elected

McCarthys have just D.S.O. and double D.F.C.

disappointment-been out of 1948. Surprised, I asked: "What Once when I thought he had

As many American and after spending months in a the fray. been intolerably rude 1

Scottish students do, Jeannie three-roomed furnished apart- I said firppantly: "You're have you got the Legion of wrote him a long letter from She has had to stay in a worked her way through college. ment. Even now it is not their

where I was And Honour and Croix de Guerre abroad, getling soft, chum." Patience is helpful with only later discovered there up for?"

Antshing New York hospital because he chose an advertising agency own house, but a portion of the the manuscript, and shortly be her ankle was, broken in But she

job, and wrote fore Next night 1

allo scripts. house of Jeannie's mother, Mrs he was to fly over to see

dreamed was a dent in the socket of

three mc.

places when

of getting Elizabeth Kerr, on Capitol Hill. uncertain probed again and the result his right leg. When he took

a right into the heart of Washing- On arrival he looked inno-motorist," since fined for tou's hottest controversies, which the same, but more the leg off a great patch of how to act towards a man was

cent, and said blandly he had drunken driving, crashed at that time were concEİTLERİ received with no legs did one refer vehement.

no letter-puling me into a taxi in which the with probing bribery scandals. in the embarrassing position to them casually or not at time before I really absorb

In some respects marriage has She first met McCarthy when, tam turbulent Jeannie. having to argue many compli- McCarthys were travelling in search of inside information, often roads aloud to her husband all? Douglas settled the ed the fact that waking up

"Woit ruddy

WELL" he said, "it'd be a cated, awkward things face to im a Manhattan street. The she visited a friend who was his when

rude

ho comes a buccaneering jug-indestructible Senator was secretary.

hore tired: Women friends who formerly He got busy on the phone French if I didn't-and would gernaut.

merely bumped on the fore- The moment the Senator hesitated to discuss anything but and next morning a spare coration, except that the French

I handed him a carbon copy

head.

sighted her, be commanded: politics with her now. And she "Hire that girl. Give her a job chats about curtains, china and leg arrived on the train in Ambassador had kissed him on which I had by me with crafty First

were foresight, and which he seemed injuries but finally was sent to

cooking like his cricket bag.

She made. light of her in my office."

any other young He taped both checks when they

to read and understand with a hospital protesting violently at

bride. the raw patch over, and that presented.

perfunctory glance. thump in the right spot and

afternoon we went out on

missing one of the most exciting

Joe is a far better cook then....... relaxed 赶感 though it was

After some fairly impassioned fights of her fighting Joe's hot But Jeannie, perhaps correctly sho-his speciality is chopped the most natural thing in I KNOW that sounds un. the links again because he they

over Dunkirk and dialogue le apologised with war on Communism within the estimating McCarthy's apprecia-Venison wrapped in vine leaves believable but it is true, will, never never let the legs

great charm, and we were put State.

tion of something hard to get, but Jeannie is learning cook- playing golf next morning with and the reason is that he beat him.

was combative from the start. Senators praise her Irish. the aid amlability.

Glamorous, auburn-haired Mrs She declined his offer and look stewa McCarthy is as tall as her burly a job with another man, now at Washington cocktail or dinner The McCarthys cre rarely seen husband, and just as aggressive, Deputy Their Courtship Was the William stownicst clash of temperaments counsel to over seen in digniflod Washing- milice.

rows and McCarthy

a member of this the same committee, would not brook

He persisted the girl-as his

point the first time we wnt in hospital to find he was down to dinner. "Just a legless simply did not upset minute while I fiddle these him.

ruddy legs under the table." He grabbed his right thigh,

dropped his leg with a

A jigsaw

the world.

Later at home he dis is a rare freak with enough. pensed with his trousers guts to recognise tragedy and, about as self-conscious that cannot be altered, to 45 a new-born baby, gave accept it without tears

over

the

he

or

times

Fell once

say no more about

either de

fighting

I found out elsewhere that were awarded. for his

France in 1940-1.

Concerning his remarkable Hurricane and Spitfire days, he the was bluntly objective to point of insisting that his eventual hair-raising downfall

legs

fault

All square

punctuating

Beauty Queen

Jag

Hard To Get

..

Attorney General Ropers, who was parties. They prefer to dine

the probing com quietly with friends.

↓

s demonstration, fect creak wishful thinking, and carry WHEN he first got the

into German hands was his own NEXT time there was a con- ton, with flaring in a rash moment of tretemps it was my turn to arguments

Jeannie uses the minimum of ing as he thumped up and on from there to endure it he fell over 20 or 30 bravado flying brazently in front be bluntly outspoken, and

stick. She wears casual, tailored make-up just powder and lip- down the room with shirt or overcome it.

pf a Messerschmitt (It was the got a letter back saying he was

I romance.

this nonsense. tails flapping

a day, but in 12

same bravado that cost him his delighted I was so unbelievably

-Finally he got

day clothes but likes to thes up for occasional evening parties yellow painted rivet-studded For a brief while months, constantly with legs ten years earlier);

assistant clerk. ́ollénaive, bonuse

and has a weakness for Ince. legs.

now that (This, incidentally, thought

saw him fall only WAN insen- him, I

Forthwith Sonator and as- After eight months I hod made us all square. Once more Terrible ho does not do as a party sitive until one night he once and that was when he

McCarthy, sistant clerk began to be seen Joo is a keen sportsman, and over 2,000,000 words-enough to

all was forgotten.

however, has described his bride around together · after office trick).

began quoting pages of tripped over my golf bag.

likes shooting at game as well write a long book of 140,000 Douglas and I are still very as "the prettiest and brainiest hours.

as army generals, and although Swinburne with obvious

words with tha colour and good friends, and I think we girl" he ever know.

It was said that Jeannie was "Joanale has never previously I never realised before pleasure and understand- Sometimes in the mor- intimate detail that is normally would both give much credit Jean Fraser Kerr, as her name the only person with sufficient shown sporting tastes she has

That to Thelma, who aipped budding implies, is a daughter of a Scot-power over the ure ing, then switched to other nings in Cornwall I kept found only is a hoyel.

rampagecu's been on a shooting trip with Try walking with rigid poets.

cave for him when he bound was the object of the experi- clashes with a tolerant "Now William Patrick Kerr, a builder Senator to modify the Serrible lilm and even watches bindhaal ankles and I'll bet you won't

ment, but neither Douglas nor now, you two, and impartial out on rump and hands I would go through it again. tact.

emigrated from Glasgow language he sometimes used in and prizefights on TVA SU Sho WEB the luckiest early this century. Like many his speeches.

But for both move one pace. Having no I thought that only hap- Across the corridor into the He bore the ceasaless

McCarthy and probing break-Douglas ever hade ja | smother. "Segnilah expatetate" be The engagement contidued, its his wife the favourite relaxation ankles, Douglas showed how pened in books. I re-read bathroom.

into private thoughts with re- London Express ¡Service, giá konadiably well and bulit tempestuous course," During a slut talking.

how essential ankles

he has to lean forward after the stanzas afterwards and That was the only ser- each step over the out- they all had a cynical tang stretched log until he over-to them. balances on to it.

JOHNNY HAZARD

he

vice he over asked, and that was only Another time he said: couldn't be bothered to strep

because Watch him do it and "You know, the months in the legs on to walk a fow you won't notice - he has hospital after lost my legs feet to take them off again. it down to a naturalert were among the happiest in to get into the bath: (where

my life!

by the way, he haves asthe I knew he really meant it sits with a mirror on a little but remembered that in platform); hospital he had been sur- rounded by wiem alle The Higsam or'à

Didn't mind

BACK in 1981, he wenk

He arenhed, Bader was plex character whi

to have been phogen to play cranether, bredden

Rugby for Pierka the

fascinated, callously, at the seldom

From the floor he has com: himself into the bath wi

WHEN MOLI HAVE

I LEON, CARRY "THE "THE TRUCK M

By Frank Robbins

ETHERE SOES ALL THE -

EVIDENCE ABÁINST POINTE). THAT. I NEEPVAL AND NO WAY A... POR AN TO USE ITZP