Harry Sacombe, Radio goon, opera singer and amateur photographer, is just back in England from Africa. Here is the story of his adventures-fold in typical goon style.
On Safari
with Secombe
D
O you mind? Jinj can vouch for it, is a simply splendid genuine invention of the gazetteer: in Uganda, near the source of the Nile. We were invited to go there by Major Michael Harbage, of the King's African Rifles: met him on our last sufari, actually
S.
the Dark Continent beckoned. Sykes hung back n bit at first, then decided to chance the dreaded tsetse fly, realising-and absolute- ly rightly--that if Syles bit the fly would never
a.
survive.
It was on All Fools Day that we shaped course for Jinja equipped with a card- of Battersen board replica
power station, daguerreo- type of Queen Victoria in case of emergency, and letters of introduction to the Livingstone-chap at clubs, went to Africa last year.
First, an expedition inld fa, Karinoja territory. the heat, the sense of, men vast, On wheels against a primeval vastness. Coolly I Înded the magazines of my
cine-camera.
Tre wasn't much game, at first, Except a 'Red Hus Aur monkey. Striking like- ness of Spike Milligan.
So to Meroto, where the trils are nomadie and build contric circles of bush and thorn to live in. buc.me pretty well. known In eucentric eireles, there.
Wo
The King of Goons
reports
on darkest
Africa
Onward we went, by boat te see the Murchison Fals: crava- chitory
A
became a familar sight. 06 tamilar, by lurry. game-werden recalled to us the
f the old well-known words
J
: ramo proverb: "When
le appears to yawn, it is 1 n to wake up."
--had been getting e
tra
flop their ears
THE CHINA MAIL,
aro indicating they don't much care for you, was stalking-prodding Sykes in front of one day taking some colour shots of an elephant
ful Inmily.
Just helted the baby with her trunk when they wil turned and op- pered about to belt us.
The mum
the
A quick decision was needed. Sykes made it: "Back to vehicles. We're inboard." shouted, "lip the stuves, fly the tuck-white ng at the goft. Away
Yet even this, without boast ng, was not the most spectacu- Jar danger of all.
It happened in the golf course at Juk; where one of the Jolly decent rules is that You can pick up from hippopotamus' foot prints.
A
Sykes almost stepped on green maruba-the kind of
killa in momba, in fact, that four securels. "Nearly got the needle there, old lad," we said good-naturedly as he drove off -drove away from the course that is.
But,
We เอ he serious. covered 3,000 miles in three into tsetse fly weeks; went arbu where white men have not been for yours to try and re- King's
cover a statue for the
On of the boatmen -- the lali na we came to call them indrepid. "You know," said the Jang war:len, "that chap is African Rifles, Bring to have a erbe jum twurd 200 TL if he does closer."
"Really, ronst Interestin." said, "which chap is, tha!?"
01
any
"The chap who drove your out today, old chap." he said.
We photographed a great privilege the war dance of the Okoshi tribesmen an incredible 1 spectacle of plumes, green and yellow dress, waving spears, und giraffe-neck shields. A gift of shield is being sent on to me.
We ale antelope meat: which
Not that that was the most tastes liku a superior kind dangerous thing that happened beef. to us, no, no,
Elephants (Loxodonla friend when they begin
10
by HARRY SECOMBE
TALKING TO JOHN WATERMAN
Farowell....
of
We travelled up the herd- waters of the Nile: and saw the splendour and wild life of an in North-West zu reserve Uganda on the Congo border. It was an ideal holiday.
. And so we say farewell Africa, fabled continent. Mny the best Safari win!
I
MONDAY, MAY 19, 1958.
Small
A Over
REMEMBER standing
the banks of tho River Wear one sunhy day 26 years ago and being ap palled by the silence.
This was not n golden "ailence
but one of black despair. Along the riverside the great shipyards lay life- less.
Cloud Settles
Britain's Shipyards
AFTER THE DECISION TO POSTPONE THE NEW CUNARDER, THE QUESTION IS 'WILL THE CLOUD GET BIGGER?
By ALEXANDER THOMSON
der will eventually be built, told elnee then. But I was told today we he was not worried by the that the position is still broadly Postponement,
ย
Griss grew in the slipways, Dirty sags filled broken windowa
Teday other shipbuilders have because it did not seem worth walle to put in new glass.
expressed the same view. A few monika before. the
hed When work was suspended on Canard shipping company
years ago. sheeked another famous ship- No. 634 all these building river, the Clyde, hy their order books were all but The poskion now, un annuncing that the bullding of emply.
rate, 15 very its ginut new Atlantic liner No. paper at any 534the future Queen Mary different. would have to be stopped.
to
Now it has scid that tot the building ef another Atlantic liner, No. 710, hea vecn postponed.
The hold up on No. 534 was o
showing distresa signal
the severity of the slump that 1931 had Britain in its grip.
The pigeon-holing of plans for No. 718 Le mare of a priest tip shipping companies are being taxed unfairly when they are up against increasing competition from internathinal airlines that are often state alded.
But it comes at a time when
its shipping is having
worst slump since the wor. So inevit- ably the question is being asited how many more orders for new ships are likely to be put on the shell in coming months,
And whether this will touch off another depresston in Britain's shipyards.
The other day Lord Abercon- way, chairman of John Brown and Co. where the new Cunar-
Shrug aside
They shrug nolde
the news about No. 1B because they have £000 million worth of orders on hand.
the same.
A spokesman for the ship- builders sald: "Because freight rates are low, and ordering has virtually ceased, the state of cur Industry is not one of depression and anxiety about the future,"
What makes them so confident that their customers will not change their minds in the altered circumstances ot £ shipping selback?
The experience of the car industry a few years ago hardly encouraging.
is
At one Motor Show, you were told you would have to wait At the next you found years for any of the popular models.
This could easily. be a nource For Inslerd of a of weakness. tanker shortage there is, for the an rate. prezent
any embarrossing surplus,
ств
land.
They need everything from great plates of steel to tea
cups and saucers.
So a slump in the shipyards would be for reaching In 1 effecta. It would he felt by the whole economy.
Shipowners base their ordern on their view of world tredo and the part they expect to play in it. The fact that they have car)** celled so few now ships, signals their confidence in the long- ferm outlook.
Is
orders to be placed is
Telroleum Co... which America
markets of the
this confidence Justified? One of the biggest batches of One of the biggest factors here by the 13 the business outlook in British
which dominates the has 56 new tankers on the way. commcdity
They will cost nearly £140 world. million, and are all for delivery
There are signs of last that by 1903.
recession In the But a DP spokesman told me: the trade
nol USA. may be alackening. has THE programme been altered or adjusted in any this happens, we shall see busi- can- dessmen everywhere hastening way. There have been eciations, or postponements," to build up their stocks of raw materials ogoin before pricea The P, O. shipping group also has large orders outstand- They include two round- and a fleet of the-world liners Ing.
the Arsl
Although they have booked virtually nothing new in recent
"off the peg."
carrying business for months, there are and you could get zinost anything 18 tankers to put it into the oil chalked up clready to keep the
The shipbuilders deny that time.
Their industry busy for the next fur
there is any parulle),
Lake 3 and a half years.
customers, they say, 20-year view in ordering new ships.
They
On the order list are 785 ships Ictalling 6,331,000 tore. are for everything from ocean Hiners and oil tanker to trawlers and small coasters.
Siner the
slurp shipping became revere last year, there
been certainly
have
cancellations,
sume:
But the total so far involves only 20 ships of 283.000 tons. So the melting of orders zmounta to no more than 4 per cent.
This
www the showing at March 31. A month has passed
So the conditions of the year, or next, are not factors that are usually of decisive importance,
But what do the companies with bulk orders for new ships what Бау? And in particular. of their oll tanker orders?
A couple of years back, there was a great rush into tankers, with the result that they now half the more than make up orders on shipbuilders' books.
**I love you," orlad the gallant count
Programme
The tankers alone are to cost £37 million.. Says P. & O.: "The programine is going on cecord-. leg to plan,"
Everyone in Britain will hope that the shipbuilders are correct in their confident assessment of the future, and that the post-
ponement in building No. 718 Is not the writing on the shipyard wall.
For new ships are the product of almost every industry in the
rise.
IC
In this way world trade will be given an upward push, and there will be more cargoes to
inove.
will
it this is so the postponement of 710, the new Cunarder, #1 Isolated really bo freident.
But whether there would be a resumption of ordering from British
ia ahipyards
quito another matter.
is now about 50 per cens higher World shipbuilding capacity
then what is required to meet normal replacement needs.
So competition is likely to bo very much fiercer in the years ahead. That is where the real question mark for British ship- building lies.
DODWELL & CO., LTD.
Wine & Spirit Department
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TO THE
BUCHANAN'S BLACK & WHITE WHISKY
TO THE LAST
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Martin
UNDER the great glass dome of the British Museum I
Around me in At my the Reading Room scholars padded to and fro. left elbow a pen quavered as its aged owner copied Anglo- Saxon laws,
searching for the lady's steret.
But I was reading about love in the desert, about bosoms which leaved, about kisses which branded with passion. I too had ordered books from the Muscum shelves. The titles: Slave Woman, Brief Ecstasy, For- bidden Bride, Desire is Blind.
While the Acholar's pen scratched was doing my own research on the woman who wrote those books, Miss Denise Robins.
DOSSIER GROWS
Already my dossier on Denise war swelling.
I knew that Denise has had 110 novels published to date.
THE
Robert
Pitman
BOOK PAGE
DENISE AND THE SPHINX GIVE UP THEIR SECRET
In The Untrodden Snow the pace is slower,
carissima, I love you." Our and clinches In the shadow of fully unhappy. You see, my Elleer's response? Her hand the Sphinx-such things Denise mother married when she was stole out and rested shyly on his brings off year after year with 18. My father was Herman
brillance and sincerity, dark, ulossy head,"
How Klein, a. music crille and does she manage. It?
singing teacher.
Froin the British Museum I "But my mother never loved drove to a house on a hill in him, She was influenced into The Brot vibrant embrace Sussex. Denize Robins has just mariage by her elder sister. does not come until halfway through the book in Ashley's moved there from Chelsen.
"When I Wis three my Alpine chalet.
There she told me how she mother ran away with an Army first came to make a carcer of officer, I was shipped off to my still writing.
father's relatives in New York. My aunt there told me my
un
Dazzling love at first sight, romance in the desert... it's
a
But the resemblance Ingera. In The Forbidden Bride Eileen is saved from the "I was a nurse in the First mother was dead. lascivious count by Geoffrey War. My husband was Osborne,"
Englishman wounded
"In New York I lived in a officer when I met Geoffrey is loving but strangely, him. But because of the war great dark house. I was realty Then he receives a his' income temporarily brought up by the servants. reserved.
family were Christian letter: "Dear Mr Osborne. We dwindled to nothing, and until The
Even I toll down regret to inform you that your he built it up again we were entfals. wife, Mrs Olga Oborne, died very poor.
le child, I was not We were lying in as
You see I was to top But in Maida Vale meant to cry. and the first baby had just not supposed to leci pain
The at five they sent, me arrived."
to a Christian Science boarding Denise smoothed her pretty school outside Now York. Paisley costurne (by Diguy
"Despilo their bellefo I Mortun). She said:-
think I was thrashed every "I remember walking with day. I remember wandering the prom in a recreation ground around the corridors I in this asylum on, the 14th
In Paddington. It was all > alngham dress — terribly this meal from heart failure depressing. I told myself I was home-rick, bat without a
Geoffrey promptly marries golog
earn enough money to home to be sick for.. Eileen. But soon he gols & get away from it all,
"Suddenly when I was seven telegrum, His face goes ashen Denise Robins sighed and I was sent back to England, for OCOSS her beautiful my mother to look after. It was She the first time I knew she was
ulive.
a formula that never fails
What then gives it the distine tive Robins flavour? Well, com pare Its plot with The Forbidden Bride (published 1020).
از
In The Forbidden Bride pale. The message sub looked
I knew that her mother, who Elleen, young, intorent, and Deeply regret foolish mistake. garden to the Downs. died recently, had been writing very English, goes off to lialy. Another Mrs Osborne died on guld:— serials of possion in papers like Red Letter for most of her 13 years.
I knew that Denise, for her second marriage just before the war, chose a husband 12 years younger than herself.
In
Your wife alive
Ant
Show 14th, The Untrodden Rowan, young, Innocent, and well.. very English, goes off froin And even In 1958 The Un- Buckinghamshire to the Alps. trodden Snow also turns en the
Forbidden In The
Bride unexpected reappearanc (1020) Eileen can't get seals on close relatives. But in this case
Continental the
train (2nd not by a wife but a mclker.
uf
I know that her mother, for class) and is helped into a After the depth of her sup
a carriage (1st class) by a stranger posed mother in Buckingham-
called Cesare.
her third morrlage, chose husband 15 years younger.
Rowan learns shire, Snow reni
"I was sent back 2nd class "80 I started by writing on the liner in charge of the qulle shamelessly for money stewardess. But one day I I wrote all kinds of stuff of wondered un to the 1st-class which I am now thoroughly decks. noileed a mon and Ashamed.
woman there. It was my father with his third wife? SO UNHAPPY
1 began to guess 'why the twists of romance are really "But 1 ccinet enough to edu itself for Denisa Kobins. And that her cate my three daughters, Just Inter my guess was confirmed. Colonel O'Nell was a heartless as my mother wrote and wroto Her husband, mother The Unirudden In
order to pay for my Pearson, charming, and genial, I also knew that apart from
education."
come home. **** Blean and Enid Blyton, (1958) Rowan can't get seats on aristocratic gel who deserted her
Continental train (3 at birth, Denise is just about the only the
Yet I still had not found the Denise joked; "We have been total author in Britain,
cluss) and is helped into a So you can imagine Rowan's key to the, Robins achievement, married nearly 19 years. But he ist-class corringe by a stranger
Khastly surprise when sho to the sincerity and conviction has never been known as Mr But none of these facts gave called Ashley.
Comes across this same madeaɔ with which she tells of children Robins. He never even roads mu an answer to the thing
deserted, mysteriously Bride mumsie In Ashley's cholet,
of my books. Forbidden which was puzzling mu.
But, while they chatted nad Such are the themes of Denles mothers lost and found again.
We went in to lunch. Behind joked together I learned. In Take Dealer's latest novel. Cesare (an Italian count) pays
Robins.. But do not despise
on an detail the story of how they met fusi published, The Unirodden the difference in Eileen's faces, tucka her up in a warm ruk
them.
Her plots may seem un- us a chicken, turned Snow (Hodder & Stoughton, you look so lovely, like an bellevable, Yet she makes her electric spit. A housekeeper at a party in Cairo, where
Deniad was on holiday. 12s, Gu.). It is infialtely better exquisite child tucked up in my readers believe in them, because brought me wit
"What written than the early Robins great rug, he whispered, Her
Across the room their cycs had found each other. books which I was reading · Keart missed the Museum.
In Tho
I asked
beat.")
was your childhood
Denise Robins was allont And before Use train has clat-
Then she said: The abandoning of baby girls; moment. It is zentimental, certainly: tered many miles on Cesare is
"Start dazzling love at first sight; have never told anyone but so, when you come to think on his knees crying:
moonlight, about it before. It was dread of it, is Jane Eyre.
one, Uitle English rose, Elleen, romance in desert
alie
50
obviously believes
Ilk?"
hefself.
"I
Later a they drove out across the Desert. And there their court- In the moonlight ship began.
by the side of the Sphinx.
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