My Name Escapes Me.

A bright start to Sunday with the televised demolition of West Ham United by a bright and talented Manchester United side 4-0.

The mood turned somewhat melancholy as I plunged further into Sir Alec Guinness' book "My Name Escapes Me". it is as erudite and mannered as the man himself. He is witty and informative about the Actor's life. The Diary, for such is what it is, covers the period from 1 January 1995 to 6 June 1996. and therein lies the cause of my melancholy. Reading it is almost like immersing oneself in a past era that seems so distant now as to belong to other peoples lives and not one's own. The people to whom he refers have passed on in the intervening 22 years as have Sir Alec and Lady Guinness themselves.

I first read the book in England in the late nineties. The period in which he wrote the Diary was when my family and I were living in a lovely cottage in the village of Peasmarsh just outside Guildford in Surrey. Oakdene Road was a strange little community, seemingly divorced from the world around it, much like the communities who live on Boats by the river or indeed those fortunate to live by the Sea. It was also like L.A. in the sense that nobody was what they appeared to be. our next door neighbour to the left was a Taxi Driver who was really an unemployed Engineer, while on the other side was an unemployed Airline Pilot and his wife a former Airline Stewardess. Last I heard he was piloting Jumbo Jets for Virgin across the Atlantic. Another neighbour three doors away was a very proper lady indeed. She looked like a woman used to the finer things in life who had perhaps fallen on hard times. (Knightsbridge traded in for Peasmarsh.) Later, we discovered that each morning at around 6.00am she would set off for the bottle bank in nearby Godalming, there to deposit last night's consumption.

Our Landlady was very regular in asking us to buy the property from her, "You know, to give the kids security etc." We thought it far from our reach and little realised that the rent we ensured was delivered to her every month was not paying her mortgage on our home but being drunk away in her local Pub. it was a long while later when a Solicitor wrote to advise us that the House was to be re-possessed by her Mortgage Company while she and her husband (when located) went bankrupt. He said there was little chance of us getting our deposit returned. He told me this knowing full well what I would do. we stayed as long as possible and did not pay rent for the last three months thus ensuring we did get the deposit back! After a period of panic, I found us a farm cottage on the outskirts of the village of Rudgwick in West Sussex. But at the period in which the Diary was written, Life seemed very stable and secure. I had several years under my belt at Charnwood Forest Brick Ltd. & Coleford Brick & Tile Co. Both were family run businesses and had done very well despite the latest British recession. We made some of the most expensive Handmade Bricks in the UK and I learned very quickly that it is the so called middle and working classes who suffer in a recession. The wealthy go on getting richer and well able to afford Handmade Bricks on their properties.

So life went on in the usual way and there was no reason to assume that anything much would change until retirement some 15 years away. In those halcyon days, we still assumed a job was for life. So it was that Sir Alec;'s musings caused me to remember that period with affection. In the intervening years, My beloved Dog Sam died, an Airedale/Labrador Cross. Then my Mother, My Brother and my Sister. I now live happily in the United States with my adored second wife and while there is much I would change given the opportunity, I would not change the last 14 years of this period nor indeed the decade my wife and I have been married. These years are among the happiest of my life. I do regret the passing of that age of which Sir Alec wrote. The great actors many of who I was lucky to see on stage at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford or the Chichester Festival Theatre on the south coast. Dame Wendy Hiller, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Howard, Peter Barkworth and many others. Memorable performances in memorable plays. It was only the nineties but seems as if it could have been a hundred years ago. My mother used to speak fondly of the Twenties and Thirties which seemed so long ago to me then as I am sure the foregoing seems to younger people today.

Oh well, Steak for dinner so I better go out and light the Grill, 2017 awaits and news of the latest horror perpetrated by the Orange Creature and his followers.