The Xtra Diary - Frank Skinner changes his mind about local libraries

Published: 8 October, 2010

NEWSPAPER columnists often come across as arrogant twerps – so Diary was refreshed to read Frank Skinner’s words of remorse in his column in the Times last Friday.

The football-mad comedian said he had been wrong when, in a previous article headlined “Sorry, the demise of the library is well overdue”, he had characterised such places as fusty and old fashioned.

What had won him round was, he explained, a visit to Church Street Library, Paddington, arranged by local resident Don Mackenzie.

Mr Mackenzie had taken exception to Frank’s “misinformed tirade” in a letter to paper.

In his column on October 1, Frank set the record straight.

“When I criticised local libraries I didn’t know exactly what I was attacking,” he wrote. As proof of his volte face, he even became a Westminster libraries user, making good use of his new card to borrow Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Blitz and pieces

IDA Haendel was congratulated on her sublime playing at a concert in the National Gallery on Tuesday by Ernest Hecht – managing director of independent publishers Souvenir Press – and 105-year-old Hetty Bower.

The world-famous violinist played three pieces by Schumann, Enescu (under whom she studied) and Pablo Sarasate at the event, which was taking place in honour of Myra Hess, who pioneered the lunchtime concerts held in the gallery during the Blitz.

Hetty attended those very concerts all those decades ago. Also in the audience was Betty Sagon, who sang as a teenage mezzo soprano in a National Gallery concert in July, 1943.

Ernest, who arrived in the UK as a child refugee in the 1930s, must have richly enjoyed the occasion.

When the original backers of the concerts, the Jewish Music Institute, had to withdraw five years ago, he stepped in and ensured sufficient funds were made available from his charity, the Hecht Foundation, to keep the events going.

Celebration of ‘Russian Shakespeare’

CAROLINE Blakiston is a busy woman.

The 77-year-old actress can currently be seen in Black Bread and Cucumber – her one-woman show at the Jermyn Street Theatre, which is located a short walk from her home.

It was critically acclaimed when it was first performed at Jermyn Street several years ago and it has been revived to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Chekhov’s birth.

It tells the story of how Blakiston made history as the first British actress to star in a Chekhov play in Russia – and in Russian.

But that is not the extent of Caroline’s current acting endeavours; during the day she is in rehearsals for Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, set to open at the Vaudeville Theatre on The Strand next month.

The actress, who lives next to Charing Cross station, told Diary that she had made numerous trips to Russia before the fall of Communism and felt a deep bond with the country.

“My parents visited Russia before the war and my mother was pregnant with me when they were there,” she said.

“I don’t know how much that has to do with it – I only mention it as a detail – but I feel like a lot of my soul exists there.”

Caroline remembers being treated “like an exotic flower from abroad” when she visited Taganrog – Chekhov’s birthplace – in the early 1990s and performed on the stage where the great man watched his first plays.
She said: “I felt at home there.

“I learned a few words and could read the Cyrillic alphabet. I kept going back regularly over a period of 10-25 years.”

Now she has made a contribution to the campaign to restore Chekhov’s house in Yalta and is encouraging others to follow her lead.

“Chekhov was the most marvellous, humane human being – the person I most wish I’d met apart from Mozart,” said Caroline. “He was the son of a slave and he died when he was just 44.

“In Russia he is a hero, their Shakespeare.” 

• Black Bread & Cucumber is at the Jermyn Street Theatre, 16 Jermyn Street, SW1 until October 23 (Tues-Sat at 7.30pm; Saturday & Sunday at 3.30pm). For tickets call 020 7287 2875.

It’s naked political ambition

FORMER television reporter Tara Stout made her political debut this week in the best way she knows – by parading around in Soho with hardly any clothes on.

The 40-year-old, who is currently homeless following a spell in prison for breaching a harassment order, launched the New Bohemian Fat Cat (NBFC) party in Little Italy, Frith Street, on Tuesday.

Ms Stout said she wanted to inject more femininity into politics, adding that she had had a good response when out canvassing, especially among men.

“Soho is where I do most of my political campaigning,” she told Diary. “We have so many public school boys in politics and a Labour leader who has nothing to do with the concept of labour.

“I went to a comprehensive school and one of the reasons I’m campaigning in the nude is that I want everyone to see I am a woman.”

Ms Stout is nothing if not ambitious.

The NBFC is, she says, “the greatest political party the world has ever seen” and she will “definitely be Prime Minister”.