The Week - UK (2021-02-06)

10 NEWS People

THEWEEK6February 2021

MyfathertheNazi

Asachildintheearly 1940 s,

NiklasFrankspentsummersat

hisfamily’scastleinsouthern

Poland.“IknewPolandasour

privateproperty,”hesays.

“This,Ithought,wasquite

normal.”Ashegrewolderhe

cametounderstandthelong

shadowhisfathercastover

Europe,saidLukeMintzin

TheSundayTelegraph:asNazi

Governor-GeneralofPoland,

HansFrank–akatheButcher

ofPoland–wasresponsiblefor

themurdersofthreemillion

Jews.TriedatNuremberg,he

washangedin 1946 .Foryears,

Niklaskepthisfamilyhistory

asecret.Then,in1987,he

wroteabookrenouncinghis

father.ItshockedGermany,a

countrythat,hesays,wasstill

notfullyconfrontingitspast.

“NeverinGermanycamean

urgefromthepeopletobuild

memorialsfor Holocaust

victims. It was always from

politicians.Thesilent majority

was never happy.I’m theonly

descendant ofabig shotNazi

whoopenedup.”

Evaristo onherOBE

BernardineEvaristoisproud

of her rootsin aworking-class,

mixed-race familyinLondon.

Buttoday,thenovelist –who

becamein 2019 thefirst black

womanto wintheBookerPrize

• thinksofherself,sometimes
  amusedly,as part oftheestab-
  lishment: she’safellow atSt
  Anne’sCollege,Oxford; avice-
  president oftheRoyalSociety
  of Literature;and, last year,she
  wasawarded anOBE.Did she
  feel conflicted aboutaccepting
  anawardlinkedtoempire?

“Theyareold-fashionednames

andtheyneedtochangethem,”

shetoldPatriciaNicolinthe

LondonEveningStandard.

“[But]myargumentis,what

doesitlooklikeifwedon’t

acceptthem?Ifblackand

Asianauthorsdon’t,thenthey

becomewhitehonoursfor

whiteBritishpeople[which]

goesrightuptopeoplebecom-

ingDamesandenteringthe

HouseofLords.Wecontinue

ourexclusionfromcertain

levelsofparticipationinsociety,

andIthinkthatwouldbesad.”

Capturingcriminalsin2D

TonyBarnesisapoliceofficer

–buthedoesn’tinvestigate

crime.Hisjobistocreate

computer-aidede-fitimagesof

suspects’facestohelphis

colleaguesintheMetcatch

criminals.Inhis 11 yearson

thejob,hehasmade2,0 00

suchimages–andhereckons

onein four ofthem haveled

officers toasuspect. Sowhat’s

the secrettoawinningimage?

“Inmy experience,ladies are

bettere-fitwitnesses than

men,”he toldJohnSimpsonin

TheTimes. “They seem to pay

moreattention tofaces.”He

follows what the witnesstells

him,whetherthesuspecthasa

“beardof bees”oraCheshire

Catsmile–whichhas

sometimesledto hisimages

beingridiculed onsocial media.

But Barnesisn’tfazedbythat.

“Someof the weirdestonesI’ve

doneover theyearsare the

onesthathave gotaresult,”

he says.“There wasone that

lookedlikeacat,and they

actuallyfound someonethat

lookedlikehim.”

Dressed inaleather jump suit, and riffing onabass guitar, Suzi

Quatro took the world by storm in the 1970s and, in so doing, paved

the way foranew generation of female rock stars. Yet the Detroit-

born singer-songwriter, now 70, never meant to beapioneer. “All

Iwanted to do was play,” she told Dave Simpson in The Guardian.

“I blew the door down but, to be honest,Ididn’tsee thedoor.Iwas

just doing whatIdo.” Having started performing at 14, she thought

of herself asamusician–not asafemale one; and any men who

took liberties with her paid the price. At one early gig,aman came

up to the front, and madea“rude gesture with his tongue, and I

just went–bang. WithaFender Precision. That’s gonna hurt.”

Sometimes, though, she had no choice but to let it go. In 1982,

during an appearance on his ITV chat show, Russell Harty slapped

her hard on the bottom. “He picked his moment,” she says. “If you

watch [the clip],Islowl yturn round and in that moment I’m

thinking: doIhit h im? DoIkickhim in theballs? No, I’m on live

television.Isat down, but if he had done that backstage, he’d have

been singing soprano for the rest of his life.” People sometimes

excuse such behaviour on the grounds that things were different

then–but Quatro disagrees. “It never was acceptable. You don’t

touch somebody you’re not invited to touch. You just don’t do it.”

Viewpoint:

Aknockout jab

“The next problem we’llhave is vaccine

snobbery. Somepeople willholdout for

the Oxford/AstraZeneca version.‘Not

saying there’s anythingwrong with the

others. Just, youknow,Oxford is

Oxford,ify ou get mymeanin g. Igot

a2:1 in classics fromMagdalen and

Ican tell you they’re bloody rigorous.’

The remo aners,meanwhile, will be

hankering after thePfizer jab: ‘Itrust

Germantechnology.’Me? Iwant

Novavax. Madein Stockton-on-Tees.

Isuspect it willpackmoreofapunch.

Abloke Imet in apub onTeessi de told

me that if the viruscameanywherenear

him,he’d‘flatten thebastard’. That’s

the sortofno-nonsenseapproachwe

need in thesedifficulttimes.”

Rod Liddle in The SundayTimes

Farewell

Rémy Julienne,stunt

driver who worked

onThe Italian Job

and manyJames

Bondfilms, died

21 January,aged 90.

Cloris Leachman,

Oscar- and

Emmy-winning

actress, died

27 January, aged 94.

CaptainSir Tom

Moore,war veteran

and charity

fundraiser, died 2

February, aged 100.

Hilton Valentine,

guitarist withThe

Animals,died

January, aged 77.

Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Luxury:scubadivinggear *Choic eifallowed only one record

Castaway of the week

This week’s edition of Radio 4’sDesert Island Discsfeatured

chef and restaurateur Monica Galetti

1*ThreeLittl eBirdsby BobMarley,performed by BobMarley

&The Wailers

2 Samoa Matalasi(My BeautifulSamoa),written and performed

by TheFive Stars

3 You Oughta Be in Loveby Dave Dobbyn,performedby Dave

Dobbyn(ft.Ardij ah)

4 Hote lCaliforniaby Don Felder,Don HenleyandGlenn Frey,

performed by TheEagles

5 La Vie enroseby Édith Piaf, Louiguyand MargueriteMonnot,

performed by Louis Armstrong

6 My Girlby Smokey Robinsonand RonaldWhite, performed

by TheTemptations

7 Purple Rain,written and performed by Prince

8 Feeling Goodby Anthony Newley andLeslie Bricusse,

performed by Nina Simone

©S

ARAH LEE:GUARDIAN:EYEVINE