The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7491 p257
1 March 2008

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Children’s favourite

An alternative career for a pharmacist

Honour and fidelity

Boredom factor

Children’s favourite

Enid Blyton claimed to have papered the walls of her bedroom in her youth with publishers’ rejection slips, but the surviving diaries of her formative writing years indicate ever-growing success. By the mid-1930s she had got into a prolific stride, which she maintained for another 30 years. By one measure she is the sixth most popular author worldwide.

Her place of work was a sunny verandah at her home, Green Hedges, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. With her portable typewriter on her knees and a shawl around her shoulders she would think of a compelling opening sentence and then go off into a trance-like state while the story flowed from her imagination through her nimble fingers onto the page.

Ten thousand words a day was the norm and she was known to complete a full-length book for children between Monday and Friday. So vast was her output there were rumours of ghost writers, but none has ever come forward. She deliberately wrote in the language of every age group from five to 15, so that those who discovered her works when very young would remain with her for the next decade.

Her energy was immense. She conducted correspondence by postcard with her many young fans, and she claimed that she made a donation to charity for each letter that went unanswered. For most of her working life she dealt personally with a variety of British and foreign publishers and with her incisive business mind always drove a good bargain. She ran the domestic household at Green Hedges and fulfilled her role as a devoted doctor’s wife.

Some felt that Blyton’s black-and-white moralising and restricted use of language deterred children from reading books with more subtle literary values. Her response is said to be that she was not interested in the views of critics aged over 12. Blyton’s books are much of their time, particularly the 1950s titles, and do reflect “-ism”s of that age that might offend modern sensibilities. Alteration of some of her books has itself drawn criticism as tampering with the history of literature.

The simple and incontrovertible answer to criticism was that children themselves wanted to read her books. She sensed that young children prefer certainty and the familiar in their reading matter.

Enid Blyton died 40 years ago, aged 73.

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An alternative career for a pharmacist

Fifty years ago, our parents (or grandparents) went wild over Winifred Atwell, one of the most popular pianists ever. She was born in Trinidad but in order to pursue her musical studies she moved to London, where she had gained a place at the Royal Academy of Music. She became the first female pianist to be awarded the academy’s highest grading for musicianship.

To support her studies she played rags at London clubs and theatres. Although she made recordings and gave concert hall performances in the classical idiom, it was a series of boogie-woogie and ragtime hits that became her ticket to unrivalled success in austere post-war Britain.

Her style was to play medleys of the hits of the day or old favourites and she became the nation’s best-loved instrumentalist. For her stage performances she would first use a concert grand, then continue with her dilapidated and famous “other piano”, purchased from a Battersea junk shop for 50 shillings.

She topped the bill at the London Palladium, played three Royal Variety performances and at a private party for the Queen she was called back for an encore by the monarch herself. She was the first black artist in the UK to sell one million records.

Her concerts drew standing-room-only crowds everywhere in the world. Australia received her appearances so well that she eventually took up residence there, and became an Australian citizen shortly before her death in 1983.

Winifred Atwell was a modest woman who came alive at the piano with winks, dazzling smiles and invitations to sing along to her joyous music. And what is particularly interesting about Winifred Atwell is that she qualified as a pharmacist and was expected to join the family business before music got the better of her.

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Honour and fidelity

The French Foreign Legion has a glamourous image as a haven for scoundrels, forlorn lovers and unhappy noblemen. Considered an anachronism by some, the legion is today a highly disciplined professional army.

Because La Légion Étrangère keeps secret a volunteer’s past, it has had more than its share of the above-mentioned types, but today the man who wears the traditional white flat-topped cap with horizontal peak (the kepi) is more likely to be a European professional soldier who prefers active service to a quiet posting.

This elite corps was established in 1831 and early recruits were largely disruptive elements in society, both foreign and French, who were put to use fighting the enemies of France. Algeria was the legion’s homeland for 130 years and shaped its character.

The legion was formerly prohibited from being stationed in metropolitan France during peacetime; French governments were understandably nervous about having a powerful force of foreign mercenaries on home soil. Today the legion’s headquarters are near Marseilles.

The legion was primarily used to protect and expand the French colonial empire during the 19th century. It has fought in all French wars, including the Franco-Prussian war, both world wars and more recently the 1990 Gulf war.

Today it is obligatory for everyone who applies to change his name. This allows people who want a chance to start a new life to enlist. After one year’s service a legionnaire can regularise his situation under his true identity. In recent years admission has been restricted more severely and background checks are done on applicants.

As its men come from different cultures, a strong esprit de corps is promoted as a means of welding them together as a team. Most of the legion’s officers are French. If a foreign-born legionnaire has served with “honneur et fidélité” for at least three years he may apply for French citizenship.

The manpower of the legion is about 7,700, hailing from 136 different countries. Legionnaires are hard, lean men who march with their heads held high as if they owned the world.

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And I quote…

Boredom factor
“The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animals. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other apparent purpose, for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics.”
— Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956), American author and critic, in ‘Minority report, H. L. Mencken’s Notebooks’ (Knopf, 1956).