BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?

Subject: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 May 11 - 01:09 PM

In the 60s, the well-known playwright & novelist Michael Frayn used to write comic essays for The Guardian. One of the features of these was a cast of satirical characters to whom he would attribute cod-quotes on the issues raised. One of these was always, introduced by his name and the description "the well-known *something* and man-of-opinion".

The name, and the "well-known *what*" are tickling at the edge of my mind but won't emerge. Can anyone remember what they were, please? Or the names of any of the others?: one I think was a socialite or some such with a name like Sir Rollo Smoothly.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 May 11 - 02:21 PM

Two books, collections of his Guardian essays, have been published by Fontana. 'The Book of Fub', and 'The Day of the Dog'. If you could get hold of a copy, the characters would all be in there.

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 May 11 - 03:44 PM

Many thanks, Eliza. I have recalled that he was "the well-known chairman & man of opinion"; but the name continues to elude.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 May 11 - 05:48 PM

Dear 'M', here's a list I've managed to find so far:-

Dr Henry Kiosk, psychiatric advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture
Alderman Jabez Foodbotham, Chairman of Bradford Railways
Seth Roentgen, leading scientific farmer
Rollo Swavely, public relations consultant
Mrs Dutt Parker, the Hampstead thinker
Julian Birdbath, the novelist
J Bonington Jagworth, eminent motorist

I'll keep looking, as I realise there were loads more of these characters!
Eliza

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 May 11 - 06:04 PM

Just discovered that a Michael Wharton wrote a very similar column in the Telegraph. Michael Frayn's pseudonym was Peter Simple. Were they all the same person??

Dr Algernon Froth, noted bon-vivant
Dr Spacely-Trellis, progressive Bishop
Alderman Sydney Spanner

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 24 May 11 - 06:23 PM

Slight thread drift, but this reminds me of another couple of Hampstead characters featured in the Guardian - Posy Simmons' George and Wendy Weber...

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 May 11 - 01:12 AM

Eliza ~~ many thanks for all this help. Yes, of course, Swavely: that one a real inspiration. & I love Spacely-Trellis. But I think "well-known editor and man-of-opinion" the best put-down of the lot, of a particular kind of self-regarding public figure who is famous for being famous.

I think the Telegraph's 'Peter Simple' was actually just Michael Wharton, & the name died with him. I can't recall ever having heard of Frayn using this pseudonym.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 May 11 - 03:56 AM

Kitty ~~ Did Posy specify that the Webers actually lived in Hampstead? I ask for a reason, being a native of Hampstead myself {born at 38 Compayne Gardens} so not desiring to hear the district traduced!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 May 11 - 04:03 AM

I meant, of course, at 01.12, well-known *chairman* ~~ of what is notably not specified!

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 25 May 11 - 02:22 PM

MtheGM - I'm not sure if Posy did specify where the Webers actually lived, though I'm sure there was an implication that it was north or northwest inner London, and I don't think Islington had been gentrified yet? And I'm sure they wouldn't have been near the Heath, more likely South or West Hampstead.....

My parents, after bringing up me and my sister in Stanmore, moved to Greencroft Gardens in 1977, so I know where you're coming from...

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 May 11 - 02:34 PM

Actually, I think Islington was in by then. Greencroft Gdns, eh? Well well... My grandparents had lived in Canfield Gardens, before my time, but had moved to Ashbourne Ave by the time I happened along. And the friend who was best man at my first wedding grew up in Aberdare Gdns. Wot a happening location, to be sure... I lived in W Hampstead (Sarre Rd) at time of my first marriage, & was actually married at Hampstead Register Office.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 25 May 11 - 02:35 PM

Didn't Frayn also occasionally mention a couple called Horace and Doris Norris?

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 May 11 - 02:37 PM

Yes, I think so ~~ or was it Morris?

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: autolycus
Date: 25 May 11 - 06:24 PM

Sir Harold Sidewinder is the name you're after

See here http://tinyurl.com/3op9a2d


I got that by asking on another talkboard.

Amazingly, I-I-I-I-I lived in Greencroft Gardens 1970-early 1972, the second place i lived after leaving the ancestrals.

Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 May 11 - 11:12 PM

Many thanks Ivor: that is the name indeed.

Wowie, another of us. I also used regularly in my early teens to attend meetings of a youth group who met several times a week in Broadhurst Gdns. Hands up any Catter with no connection to the network of streets immediately SW of Finchley Rd Station {Metropolitan & Jubilee [formerly Bakerloo] lines}: your immediate resignation will be required.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: autolycus
Date: 26 May 11 - 03:02 AM

Steady on :-)

Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Help:Frayn Guardian character name?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 May 11 - 04:39 AM

Whoops ~~ OK! But you must admit...

BTW my late wife's last lit agent lived in Greencroft Gardens, so we would often visit there in the latish 90s. One simply mentions these things, you know.

LoL

~M~