‘I must have it!’ Lord Archer has sketches in his sights

Published: 5 March 2010
The Xtra Diary

LORD Archer was the star guest at his friend, the great illustrator Ronald ­Searle’s 90th birthday party on Tuesday.

Unfortunately Searle couldn’t attend an exhibition of his priceless works in his honour. I gather he rarely leaves his home in France and can only be contacted by fax.

As for Archer, his reputation as an author and politician was eclipsed by lurid headlines in the public print.
But in meeting him Diary immediately cast them out of mind, as you would expect. A friend and collaborator with Searle, Archer provided 30 works of the artist he has amassed over the past quarter of a century to the Chris Beetles Gallery in Ryder Street, West End, where you can enjoy them.

The pair recently collaborated on Archer’s collection of short stories, Cat O’Nine Tales.
Rumours of a rare public appearance did not materialise, with Mr Searle remaining at home, but that didn’t seem to bother the hundreds of people who crammed into the gallery.

Archer seemed keen to add to his ­collection, although Diary couldn’t help but think he should appreciate what he’s got. On two occasions, he insisted: “I must have it”, only to be told “you already own that one Jeffrey”.

The exhibition is a glorious eclectic mix of typical Searle cartoons, portraits of the newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook and other figures of the post-war years as well as images for advertising campaigns that are just as funny as they were 50 years ago.

But Diary didn’t want to leave a small drawing on yellowing parchment of a face sketched while Searle was a prisoner of the Japanese ­during the war – this with scores of ­others, secretly drawn in prisoner of war camps, were smuggled out as a terrible record of the brutalities our men suffered. This record alone gives Searle an unforgettable footnote in our history.

Rites of passage for a charmer

HEARTS are fluttering in London Zoo’s gorilla kingdom, after the arrival 12-year-old Yeboah.

Zookeepers say the 20-stone French stud is dating “three girls at once” (doesn’t the animal kingdom do monogamy?) since making it his new home in January.

Over the next months visitors will be able to watch Yeboah transform from a blackback to a silverback gorilla, as he learns to dominate the new group.

Daniel Simmonds, zoopkeeper at Gorilla Kingdom, said: “Yeboah’s a very charming gorilla and is having to turn quickly from a boy into a man now he’s met our more experienced female gorillas.”

Perfect place for cabaret

IT’S the perfect marriage. Like footballers and Faces nightclub, Porgy and Bess or cheese strings and lunch boxes (OK maybe that’s the adverts working), what better location for a satirical cabaret show than the Private Eye dining room in the Coach and Horses pub in Soho.

Dusty Limits – described as the “love child of David Bowie and Tom Lehrer”, and Tricity Vogue, an elegant  and hilarious songstress, will host a series of entertainment evenings throughout this month, billed as a refreshing antidote to brainless celebrity guff on TV and at the musicals.

They will be joined each week by a different special guest “plucked from among the nation’s finest poets and troubadours”.

Tickets £10 for shows on Saturdays at 9pm, from March 6 – dinner option available from 7pm.

Alliteration a sign of good practice

AN antidote to the more mindless tagging you usually see around Westminster, Diary spotted this cheeky, piece of spray-vandalism in Pimlico.

Whoever is behind the stunt, you can be sure they weren’t educated at City Hall’s school of grammar.
The council found themselves in deep alphabet soup last month for shelling out more than £1,000 in taxpayers’ money to replace misspelt street name signs.