10 NEWS People
THE WEEK 10 August 2019The first magic academy
Jill Murphy was only 14 when
she wrote the first draft of her
1974 bookThe Worst Witch,
says Helen Brown in The Daily
Telegraph, and she didn’t look
far for inspiration. “Mildred is
me,” she says of her chaotic
young heroine. “I wasamisfit
–Ihad the long dark hair in
plaits, which were always half
undone with bits sticking out,
my shoelaces flapping behind
me, my hat on back to front.”
The idea ofaschool for magic
had come to her one day when
she and two friends arrived
home, soaked by rain, and her
mother told them they looked
likeatrio of witches. “It was
the best ideaIever had, and so
easily translatable,” she says.
“The chemistry lab was for
potions, the coats were cloaks,
the bikes were broomsticks.
It all fell into place.” There are
clear similarities withHarry
Potter’s Hogwarts, but she’ll
not be drawn on that subject.
“It would be nice,Isuppose,
if people said thank you. But
you have to be gracious.”Bushnell on modern dating
After five years in rural
Connecticut, Candace Bushnell
is back in New York–but the
city is not what it was when
she first arrived, aged 19. In
the 1970s, “Manhattan was
aplace where you came to be
free”, she told Laura Pullman
in The Sunday Times. “Every-
body who did not fit in was
here. People with dreams. And
it wasn’t about money, it was
about passion.” Now, hardly
anyone drinks at parties, no
one smokes, and it’s allcorporate. “It’sathousand
times less fun.” The dating
scene she wrote about inSex
and the Cityhas changed too.
Her characters struggled to
meet eligible men; now, people
just swipe right on Tinder, but
she’s not sure it’s an
improvement. “Women have
the same complaints about men
as they did before [but] their
complaints are much harsher
now. They seem angrier. The
rejection and the uncertainty of
online communication, it hurts
people’s souls. It seems to be
emotionally destabilising.”The Beatles and me
Asateenager in 1960s
Liverpool, withaboyfriend
who played drums with The
Swinging Blue Jeans, Sue
Johnston wasaregular at the
Cavern Club. “We used to go
at lunchtime,” says the actress,
now 75. “A shilling to see The
Beatles! But because of the
sweat running down the walls,
it did smell. It would cling to
your clothes. My mother used
to go, ‘You’ve been to that
bloody dirty place again...’”
Johnston went on to work for
The Beatles’ manager Brian
Epstein, says Craig Mclean in
the Radio Times, and became a
close friend of Paul McCartney,
who one day gave her a
reel-to-reel tape. “It was them
playingLove Me Doin Paul’s
garage, or John Lennon’s
garage, and he said to me,
‘This is going to be our [first]
record.’ AndIlistened to it a
few times, thenItaped over it
–aMax Miller show!” She
mimes puttingagun to her
head. “But who knew?”In his early 20s, Rupert Everett seemed to have it all. As the star
of the 1984 filmAnother Country,hewas famous, and with his
“ferocious beauty” he wasapin-up too, said Arifa Akbar in The
Guardian. Yet he wasn’t happy with his looks back then. “I had that
gay shame.Iwanted to be better looking all the time.” Part of the
problem was his physique: having shot up 12 inches aged 15, he
was six foot six, but rake thin, witha19-inch waist. “That’s why I
never felt good-looking. Immediately afterIstarted working,Ifound
these two queens who made padding.Ihad apadded bum, padded
legs, padded shoulders.” He came out as gay in 1989. It was at the
height of the Aids epidemic, and it damaged his career–but he’d
do it again. “There was no wayIwas going to pretend,” he says.
“I was so proud to be part of it all. The gay scene at the beginning
of the Thatcher years was so remarkable, because you counted just
for showing up. And it was classless and ageless. You’d go to the
Coleherne Arms [a former gay pub in west London] and you’d see
aduke of 70 chatting toaplumber of 25 and then they’d go off to
spank each other.” Yet he has regrets about the way his life turned
out. In his youth, he dreamt of beingabig Hollywood star–“I’d
have done anything to get along”–and though he sees through
that kind of fame now, the disappointment lingers. “I think
everybody’s disappointed. Everybody wants to have more.”Viewpoint:
Jokes under scrutiny
“No longer doesagag stay in the room
where it was told. If it’s filmed and put
online, it reaches an audience for which
it was never intended. If it’s repeated on
social media–removed from the atmos-
phere around it, ripped from the build-up
created by the comedian and sent out to
people who don’t even want to hear it–it
travels further; and something is different.
The words are the same, but it’s not the
same joke. Is it possible to beacomedian
when you don’t know who you’re making
jokes for? When you’re unsure who is
listening, and what mood they’re in? How
can comedians tell the jokes they want in
aworld where the butt of those jokes can
turnacommunity against you? Can
comedy survive in this age of outrage?”
Miranda Sawyer in The ObserverFarewell
Marcel Berlins,
lawyer and legal
columnist, died 31
July, aged 77.
Toni Morrison,
Nobel and Pulitzer
Prize-winning
author, died 5
August, aged 88.
D.A. Pennebaker,
documentarian who
shot Bob Dylan’s
Don’t Look Back,
died1August,
aged 94.
Karsten Schubert,
gallerist at the
centre of the YBA
scene, died 30
July, aged 57.Book:The Oxford Book of English Verse
Luxury:aphoto of his wife, Rosie *Choice if allowedonlyone recordCastaway of the week
This week’s edition of Radio 4’sDesert Island Discsfeatured
founder of bookshop chain Waterstones, Sir Tim Waterstone
1 Piano Concerto No. 2by Sergey Rachmaninov, performed by
Cyril Smith with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
2 Symphony No.5inEflat majorby Sibelius, performed by the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Leonard Bernstein
3*The Dream of Gerontius (chorus)by Edward Elgar, performed by
Janet Baker with John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra
4 Jesus Christ the Apple Treeby Elizabeth Poston, performed by
the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge with Sir David Willcocks
5 Symphony No.5inCsharp minorby Gustav Mahler, performed
by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Klaus Tennstedt
6 Concerto No.1inAminorby Karl Goldmark, performed
by Itzhak Perlman with André Previn and the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra
7 ANightingale Sang in Berkeley Squareby Eric Maschwitz and
Manning Sherwin, performed by John Le Mesurier
8 La Merwritten and performed by Charles Trenet