1958-01-11 — Page 14

Page I

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1958.

Mr. Paramor Comes Clean...

WITH the Royal Variety Show behind him, Norrie Paramor comes clean,

WITH

FICTION ON THE ROCK

THE ROCK, By Warren Tute.

Cassell, 161. 396 pages.

The man who rubbed shoulders with Gracie Fields, Tommy Steele and Judy Garland on the Palladium stage says: "I was on that show by a mero fluke,"

Mr Paramor, conductor, composer, arranger, record company executive and pianist says no from behind the bar lounge of his large white stucco home in Hampstead where he lives with his wife, thres children, a stereo-hi-l record player E Rock js, of and the most imposing record collection this side of Denmark Street,.

He explains: "That Big Ben Banjo Band I presented before the Queen is something of a joke. I won't say I hate banjo banda. But I suppose you could say that I like them in a macabre sort of way.

enough to appear in a Variety Performance,"

Royal

On such slender foundations business reputations are show

"I formed the band in 1954 when my other work was getting me down. Formed it as a kind of safely valve, you might say. We made record and then thought nothing more about it until a couple of months later made. Columbia told me that they had If you like banjo hands (even

of sold 100,000 copies

if a macabre sort of way) hear. Naturally, we made others. And the Big Ben Banjo Band On now we're considered good Party Packet (Columbia

33).

A British

110

Crossword Puzzle

The selection includes 1 Take To De Beside the Seaside, The Charleston. 'Way Down Yonder and The More We Are Together.

In the pub With an audience Imported from Wardour Street's Flamingo Club, the Tony Kinsey Quintet set up their standa for one night in the tap-room of The Rallway Arms, a broad-minded pub next door to the Decca recording #tudios. The results can bo heard on Jazz at the Flamingo (Decca 33). Here is cool, hard, driving jazz.with notable solos by Bille Sage on plano and vibes and Joe Harrielt on alto- Bax.

course,

almost tn

1 Gibraltar, and round tho

·war-time activities of this nayal outport Mr Tula has woven one of his entertaining and informa- να "Actionalised documen- tarles."

The .result exact equivalent one of the batter

in print of English war gims, As the naval key to the Mediterranean, Gibraltar had a vital role in our war strategy. From Gibralter was mounted that painful attack on the French

fleet; from Gibraltar the Bismarck was hunted down; from Gibraltar the slege of Malta was relleved, and the in- vasion of North Africa Iaunched..

Documentary

Nancy Mitford on Voltaire.. Mrs. Thomas on Dylan Thomas. Hesketh Pearson on W. S. Gilbert Seldom has there been a publishing period richer in new disclosures about vivid people. Today critics select two more among the new books which enable us to See People Afresh.

SEEING

PEOPLE

AFRESH

That Platonic Affair

NOWADAYS we do not believe in Platonic friendships were

by

JOHN

THOMPSON

you no caso to "I hope

between men and women. Such friendships without we friends she remained semi- you have no causo for anxie

sex are like Christmas cake without the marzipan.

But this has not always

invalid.

But she was the most formid- able semi-Invalid of the Victorian Age, From her sick

she floyed out in every directon.

These, together with the routine of an ancient colony and a great naval base, are Mr Tule's documentary facts. And he brings them alive by invent- In brief...

ing fictional characters to Illus-| Crosby and Sinatra offer their

trate his main points. The new Christmas selections. A Christ-

governor, appointed just before mas Bing With Bing (Brunswick the outbreak to shake the colony

out of its peacetime lethargy, isļ Includes Happy Holiday, 33)

White

Christmas, The Firet a tough and dedicated soldier been so, as a great new were introduced, Florence, bed

He has to collect round him-i Noel, 0, Little Town of Bethle-self a like-minded staff and this biography just published who scared the wits out of to show. Benjamin the War Office of her day, Frank Sinatra includes Jingle means shifting a vain admiral goes

and Bells, White

colonial Jowett Christmas, Santa and

Florence used to scribble in the mar Claus Is Coming To Town in secretary and finding better Nightingale were both ingin of Benjamin's letters;

men. Christmas Dreaming (Philip

their different ways top"I do so like Mr Jowett," 33). All first-closa emotional

Through him we watch the wheels of polizy

Victorians. material,

furning, A nephew of his happens to be the

all began

and when John Herbert She was the Lady with Stuart Mill asked Jowett to Clough succumbed. Ramsden Greig commander of a destroyer in the

flotilla based on the Rock and the Lamp, the heroine of advise Florence about what she

What Was

he like, through his eyes we see there the otherwise disastrous called her "Atuff." The stuff eminent Victorian who stood up policies translated into action. Crimean War.

was un normous. confused so well to the Ludy with the mass of papers, mostly laying Lamp? He was short of stature, Then there are the Gibraltarians

hem.

14

16

{17

118

120

ACROSS

1 Talk of Its feet) (0).

Did gold coin (1.

7 Drivers on stage? (3).

May give one a frighL·I (5).

10 Pine wall (43..

12 Clipped (7),

19 Mueunt piece? (8).

10 Amitant (9).

17 Inelte by encouragement (4).

18 Puls to Night (8).

20 Continued in seeupation (7).

Prepare for Press) (4),

23 How ng extremist will speak? $55.

24 Datric under rule (8).

nedeck (0).

20 A shop may be (6),

24

DOWN

1 Very add 10).

2 Row 1 houses (8)

Ok-fashlaned jug (4).

5 That's Anal (d)."

0 Filed (0),

© Meditate on the lifter (5).

11 Bunty man? (0).

12. Loses freshness (5),

13 Distributes incorrectly (1

14 Doomed (8).

I Lold into like an earl! (0) *

22 11 might hold purich (4).

24

FRIDAY'S HOLUTION—Acrom: 3 Backbone, & Dillar, 1 Meantime, 1) Cribbage, 12 Mero, 13 On-set, 180bora, 19 Herm, 22′ gerahir. Affluent, 26 Velvet, 20 Shepherd. Down: Edict, 2 Plain, flambino, 4 Area, 3 Kine, 0 Olives, 7 Éieven. 10 Agrec, 14 Spare, 10 Treated. 10 Shears, 1 lile, 20 Above, 31 Pelty, 22 Such, 23 RNEN.

|∙CLASSICAL

PEAKING

* teken for an opers fan should be easy this year, Fow, ! Imagine, would be disappointed with an opera recording in which ma Callas singe the principal role,

and of these there have been a

profusion in the post couple of months. For myself I would choose the Incomparable record- Ing of Belial' lttle-heard La Sonnambula, but other close contenders are Verdi's Trovatore and Un Maschera. All

ם

bureaucratie

Ho

Was

at homer" inquired the guest, intentions. ponderous with Victorian good "No, sir, it's "only the master invited 12 to nothing,” replied the bullor, dinner tonight and you are the 18th who has come."

So formidable was she that Sir Geoffrey Faber says sho drove two of her most ardent

HE SCOLDED admirers to their tombs. Jowett survived Where Sidney Afriendship with Florence

But

Arthur Hugh

this

the Rock scorps, as they are dis. known as the finest tencher down her views on every other his voice never broke. He spoke dainfully called, One is a dis-of his age, renowned and tople under the sun. Jowilt affected near-Communist who feared not only in Oxford bravely advised this formidable tones. He had soft tubby hands always in piercing, near-falsetto brings us in touch with the but throughout the land.

woman that she must on no lice a baby's.. account publish the "stuff."

Undergraduate called him the "downy owl."

Yet on his reduced scale he Was strikingly handsome, When he was a schoolboy at St Paul's the other boys called him effeminate prottiness was trans-- Miss Jowett, In adult Be his formed

into masculine

1

Convincing

INVALID

corres-

good

S the years went by Jowetta

ripened. He bardly ever went to London without going to sto often to stay with her family her for the afternoon. He went either in London or at one of their country houses.

her to be more charitable, not He used to scold her telling to fuss so much, and not to exaggerate. She was to be more considerate of others, o wrote, and she ought to be prouder achievements.

of herself and her

feminine heart, more than à brlet encounter looks that turned many a darling Jowett," Florence's

dockyard workers and the 20,000 Spanish workers who come into the colony every day.

The two of them also en- Another is a shipping magnale, joyed an entirely Platonic Jalme Barbarossa, honorary friendship that now makes ADC to the governor, whose two fascinating reading. daughters provide

Mrs WHEN strongly Cecil

they first Woodham Smith'a ponded with each other developed love interest,

brilliant. life of Florence Jowett was 43, Florence was 40, Nightingale (published in But this turned out to be much Mr Tute has done a skilful job 1950) has already told us Their pen-friendship burgeoned in with the large cast inc has something of the Columbla assembled,

story. into an intimacy that lasted for He keeps all the threads going convincingly; they Now Sir Geoffrey Faber has more than 30 years, only ending weave and interweave, carrying completed the tale with hia with Jowett's death. our Interest forward on two JOWETT (Faber and levels, the personat

Characteristically, and the

Florence recordings on the market, but higher strategical, This kind of Faber, 30s),

outlived him by 17 years. He Phillips have

treatment does not allow for come up with

She lived on to a Florence and Jowett Arst died at 70. dise which seems destined for subtlety Anesse; but the met not in persou but by..

ripe old 98.. the best caller lists. It to an broad outlines are clearly and LP containing a colection played vividly drawn, and give us very lutter. They were

They arat met when Florenes were well the feel of the place and friends long before they be invited Jowett, who was A

clergyman, 10 came devoted to each other. administer the Sacrament to RICHARD LISTER Though even before they her as she lay H. For most of

LPS.

For a ballet fan something from Bwan Lako i always There are several acceptable.

by Andre Kostelanetz,

-DAVID BLACK -London Express Service),

VIGNETTES OF LIFE

"YE SKEWER DID DROPPETH FROM

MINE HAND?"

the time.

or

-(London Express Service).

Turkey Capers

pen-

come and

PARTIES

HEN he became Master of Balliol College, Oxford, at the ago

of 53 his guests were invited with

such apparent wildness that his dinner-parties known in Oxford 裁起 Jowett's Jumbica.

Illa butler was once heard to suppress a groan as he helped a

BY HARRY WEINERT

DON'T TALK TO THE CARVER —— IT ONLY RATTLES HIM — HAVE PATIENCE YOU'LL GET YOURS.

SHHH

The affection between them became devotion. Benjamin, the cheruble don, was soon "my

family even supposed that Jowett had asked her to marry him, but that she had refused.

However, it is not at all certain that Jowell would havo wanted to be her husband. In those days a don at Ballloi had to have special permission from his college before he might be. married, and Balliol would "not release him.

LETTERS

Nher mark on Jowett. Every EVERTHELESS, Florence left

summer he used to take a read- ing party of undergraduates. away during the Long Vocation. His friendship with Florence was beginning to exhaust him.

When he shut himself in his room his pupils supposed that he was working at his transia- tion of Plato. They wero wrong. He was writing welling, writing the enormous letters that sho exacted from him. Far into the night (while the reading party | slept) Jowett was writing to his

pen-pal.

And so the affair went on, Piatonic to the end, though often their only chaperon was Florence's favourite

cat: Mr

Mutt, Jowett once confessed in his diary that there was one happiness he had never known But even if his friendship was strictly. sexless he could still write a few days before his death: "How large a part has your life been of my life,"

So he died the don of whom the poet Swinburne wrote that it WIS д difficult to Imagine him dead is It was to think of most dona alivo,

Wanay

DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THE PERSON |WHO "DOESNT

WANT" A LEG, TURNIPS, YES¬ BUTNO ONIONS WHO DOESNT WANT THIS AND CANY EAT THAT-

FILL HIS PLATE.

COM. 1954 BY CINERAL FEATURES COEP, TM.WORLD RIGHTS RESERVED.

WE HAVE COME

A LONG WAY SINCE THE

EARLY DAYS.

MAKE THE PUNCH.

11-18

"I'LL MAKE

THE PUNCH? YOU MADE

THE PUNCH LAST YEAR/"

HE'LL BE THANKFUL FOR THIS

"TOMORROW.

IT'S THE DUTY OF ALL GOOD CITIZENS TO SEE THAT THE CARVING KNIFE- IS FIT TO DO

IT'S PART.

AS

I

WAS 'SAYING -*

WHAT'S THE USE OF NEYING TO GET THÉ GIRLS ATTENTION WHEN HER. THOUGHTS

ARE CENTERED ON TURKEY

A POTTED GUIDE | TO THE REST

THE PRICE OF DIAMONDS, by Dan Jacobson, (Welden- feld & Nicolson, 13s (d.). A packet of diamonds separates Mr Fink and Mr Gottlieb, res- pectable business partners, in a one-horse South African town.. This time even the women ors frightened by these fielt. Littim rocks, Blightly too lung, but comic. Emphatically a writer. to watch.

• THE MYTHMAKER,' by Sarah Galaham (Arthur Barker, 125. Od.).. This scurch for a fanatical survivor from Hitler's burker maken carefully mixed, feminino mystery, Young British officer (27) noses the scent through Hunkarian rela- tives In Vienna during Harry Lime's 1948. Writing snobblab, but story cruises at high speed.

AN ATLAS OF WORLD AFFAIRS, Uy Andrew Doyi (Methuen, 101.). Up-to-date geography lessons ;, în „70, " betar instalments, explaining modern world for the lazy man (plenty. of excellent napa), Will als help the enthusiast." (the index is quite good)" press hila point home with facle, padaten, and Agtres