75. A letter to Terry ✒️ #15

Screen icons, black-and-white telly and an improbably large rubber duck. Plus: CLUES for the treasure seekers!

Jun 14, 2023

Dear Terry,

Thank you for your kind response to my letter.

I enjoyed immensely the YouTube video you included, which featured Dame Edith Evans’ portrayal of the indomitable Lady Bracknell in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. I was staggered to note that the film had been released as early as 1952 – and in colour, to boot!

But never mind Dame Edith – what about the utterly fabulous Joan Greenwood, who plays Gwendolen? Greenwood co-stars as Sibella, the love interest of Louis Mazzini (played by the dashing Dennis Price) in my favourite film ever, Ealing Studios’ ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’, which was released even earlier than ‘Earnest’, in 1949.

The film – a clever and hilarious rendition of an absolutely cracking tale – is noteworthy not only for its absolutely terrific twist in its final minutes, but because Alec Guinness plays no fewer than eight characters; all members of Louis Mazzini’s extended family, the d’Ascoynes.

And Sibella – Joan Greenwood – finds herself part of a complicated arrangement of romantic geometry involving Louis and his cousin’s widow. In love triangle terms I’d say it’s represented by more than that shape simply to accommodate Louis’ sizeable ego. Do watch – you’ll see exactly what I mean! It’s fabulous.

🎼

I enjoyed listening to jazz great John Coltrane’s rendition of ‘My Favourite Things’ from – or should I say ‘with apologies to’? – ‘The Sound of Music’. I won’t say that I prefer it, but as a step sideways from Julie Andrews’ sung version in the original soundtrack it made for a pretty good listen in its own right. Thank you for the link.

I remember reading an obituary of Christopher Plummer – the severe yet dashing Captain Georg von Trapp – in which he was quoted recounting his experience filming what he had cynically dubbed ‘The Sound of Mucus’.

I haven’t been able to find the obituary in question online, but I’ve found the following text courtesy of an anonymous commentator on imdb.com:

Christopher Plummer intensely disliked working on this movie. He was known to refer to it as "The Sound of Mucus" or "S&M" and likened working with Dame Julie Andrews to "being hit over the head with a big Valentine's Day card, every day." Nonetheless, he and Andrews remained close friends until his death. Andrews claimed that Plummer's cynicism probably helped his performance and this movie, keeping it from being too sentimental.

‘Too sentimental’? Terry, surely not? 😉

‘The Sound of Music’ was certainly a feast for all the senses, and having been filmed in 1964 it delivered its heartwarming story in colour to the silver screen. Long after the first colour television sets appeared on UK shores in 1967, the film was first broadcast on BBC1 on British TV on Christmas Day 1978.

Soon after we got our own colour telly some time in the 1980s, our other one, the portable black and white set, became (fanfare!) our household’s second television! Oh, the glamour of having the opportunity to goggle two boxes; for two different programmes to be watched in different rooms of the house at the same time!

One Saturday afternoon my brother and dad had been keen to watch swashbuckler extraordinaire Errol Flynn in Warner Bros’ 1938 film ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’. Mum and I had been wanting to view something more contemporary on the other side, and it was obvious to all of us that no coin needed to be tossed in order to determine which pair would score the jackpot of seeing their film choice on the colour telly.

Robin Hood was such an old film! The chaps would be missing nothing by watching it on the little black-and-white set, while Mum and I would enjoy our more modern film in colour.

So far, so obvious.

turned-off gray CRT TV on table — Photo by PJ Gal-Szabo on Unsplash

Our film finished while Errol and his 1930s band of merry men were still saving the day in the other room, and keen for us to offer my brother and dad the opportunity to watch any concluding buckles being swashed on the bigger screen of the new telly, I went to fetch them while Mum changed the channel.

Terry, the film was in colour. 😲
We really should have tossed that coin.

Your latest photograph for the Puddlegate album has alarmed me no end. If your local council is refusing to spend its road repair budget on rectifying the flooding issue might I recommend you suggest to them the free provision of watersports sessions (paddle boarding, waterskiing, rubber duck racing and the like) to the local community to take their mind off any concerns they might have about the ever-rising tide?

Let’s hope they keep that little idea in proportion, though – otherwise they might end up in the quackers position in which these guys ended up just last week!

Now Terry, it would be remiss of me not to mention the ouliphant in the room. You’ll recall that we’d both been looking forward to the online course that had been due to be run last weekend by CityLit entitled: ‘Writing the Oulipo: a taster’; you as tutor, me as a participant. Heck, it was then that we’d been going to meet for the first time, albeit on Zoom rather than in person. I was so disappointed that it had been cancelled.

Well, it was to honour Oulipo1, in fact – and your own terrific series of ‘Experiments in style’ posts here on Substack – that I had put my thinking cap on to create the ‘Hidden Roman Treasures’ puzzle that I published on Saturday.
(Teacher’s pet, that’s me!)

Here’s the puzzle again, this time in an easy-to-print format:

Hidden Roman Treasure Puzzle

2.92MB ∙ PDF file

Download

I’m very generously giving you some clues, which have also been published as a Pinned Comment at the top of my original post. I’ve got to play fair, right?

CLUES
1. Read the instructions for the puzzle.
2. Read the title of the puzzle.
3. Have a good look at the first word of the first sentence.
4. See what marks the spot – and where – in the tenth sentence.
5. BONUS CLUE: Try extrapolating clue 3 across the rest of the story. Second word of second sentence, third word of third sentence… etc!

I would encourage you – indeed anyone reading this letter – to sharpen your pencil and give it a go! This is open to anyone reading this! If you solve the puzzle – and as an expert in such craft, Terry, I have high hopes for you in this regard – drop me a line with your solution to rebeccaholden@substack.com before noon UK time on Friday 16th June, and comment on the original post with ‘I’ve found the treasure!’
All correct entries will be put into the draw to win a brand-new copy of my favourite book, ‘Three Men in a Boat’ by Jerome K. Jerome.

Terry, you concluded your letter with these words:

I am writing this in the heart of London, an hour away from home, starving, and wanting to put my feet up on a cat.

Animal cruelty aside, for I’m sure you didn’t mean it – heck, you’d have to evict the cat from its handbag first, for goodness’ sake – I am impressed that you should take on such an important task as writing your letter to me in such non-conducive surroundings, and in a weakened state of crippling hunger. Should you not have set yourself up better before embarking on such a job?

I remember reading this super post of yours about your favourite cafés, and wondered if you might have been writing your letter to me in one of those?

Eclecticism: Reflections on literature and life

My life in cafés

Ever since I was about 12 years old, I’ve loved cafés. My parents had a shop in a market, and I’d help them out. In my breaks, or when they didn’t need me for a while, I’d repair to the café, where I’d sit quaffing a milky coffee, eating hot buttered toast, and reading a Superman or Batman comic. Bliss…

3 years ago · 16 likes · 19 comments · Terry Freedman

Do you ever settle down in a café to write, Terry? It’s something that a less self-conscious Rebecca would like to do sometime, but the opportunity doesn’t often present itself. Just thinking about it for a moment, though, I’ve realised that I do have some equivalent options to select as writing outposts.

You see, although I’m not back to anything like last year’s level of walking, I have a favourite tree stump on one of my local routes where I’ll stop for a rest, a slurp of tea and – because it’s in just the right location for me to have by then shaken loose some thoughts from the constraints of my head – a few minutes transferring words from my chaotic brain into my pocket notebook. In addition, fence posts or the top rail of a gate or stile make pretty decent stand-ins for my desk. And of course, quiet moments of a shoot or sitting in the van waiting for Jim to stow his copious gear after a job also make for excellent on-the-go writing scenarios. I’ve even been known to scribble some thoughts down in the dentist’s waiting room.

a tree stump with moss growing on it in a forest — Photo by Peter Poluch on Unsplash

One of Writer Rebecca’s dreams is to swan into a beautiful riverfront café every Saturday afternoon and as many weekday lunchtimes as she can manage, toting her leather satchel containing a show-off copy of her newly-published novel2, her MacBook, her A4+ Leuchtturm 1917 hardback drafting notebook, her pink fountain pen (with two extra cartridges), her tiny dark-blue leather pocket notebook for scribbly thoughts, and whatever reading book she’s got on the go at the time should words of her own not be forthcoming to keep her occupied. After all, if she’s not writing she needs something lovely to read while she works her way through that full-sized pot of English Breakfast tea. 🫖

white book behind mug — Photo by Thom Holmes on Unsplash

I’m not there yet, either in terms of self-confidence or indeed even identifying myself as a writer, but until then I’ll wing it with that large teapot and my leather satchel. ‘A leather satchel?’ I hear you ask. Yes, Terry. Not a bag full of cats, and absolutely not the handbag referred to by Lady Bracknell.

All the very best,

Rebecca

If you’ve enjoyed reading this letter to Terry, please let me know by clicking the heart. Thank you! My next ‘Dear Reader, I’m lost’ post will be published as usual on Saturday. See you then!

Dear Reader, I'm lost

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