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Letters 1999
15 - vii - 99
Dear Jane Salkeld,
Many thanks for your letter of July 3rd. I've been away in Corfu for two weeks. If any OCs have a cheap house to sell there I'd certainly be interested to hear from them!
Joking apart yes I would be interested to hear from anyone that remembers me. Criswell's stories of boating life in Fowey, Robin Elliot's poems, the Wollard brothers who I believe went into films which I've also done a bit of, Parviz Ala, Blishen, and Trenchman are a few names that spring to mind.
King was HM when I arrived and actual told my intake we were the 'creme de la creme' (did Muriel Spark get it from him?) and I can confirm DPB's laudable distaste for capital punishment - more than offset the way he had of stroking the back of his head and saying "I am the Master" with a unique dipping inflection which may have been part of the reason he acquired the nickname 'Dippy'.
I take issue with the Maltby appreciation in terms of timing: I arrived in September 1945 and was his fag for my first term when he was head boy.
I was one of the juniors rescued (truly) by a senior who came and led us, damp handherchieves to our mouths, crouched low on the floor all along the upper passage with a few inches of clear air below the almost solid smoke, to safety via the end stairs down past the music room. That was from my second year junior dormitory which must have been 1945/6. I don't remember any histrionics with fire helmets: it was deadly serious and I think such an image must have been an imaginative subsequent embellishment.
I have sent off my standing order and will obtain a copy of the register as you suggest.
Yours sincerely,
Mike Riddall (45-50)
PS. I started cello lessons at the same time as Chris Irby but could not withstand Amy Allen's onslaughts. As I groaned along she would go and slam the window of the music room which was then directly above the school kitchen and say "I hate the smell of cabbage unless it's well cooked". (Clayesmore should have been the perfect place for her as in my day the cabbage could be detected in the music room from second period onward almost everyday - lunch was at 1.00! Ed.)