Misjudgements under the duvet

SOME of the hazards of acting in a Channel 4 sitcom are spelt out by Susannah Fielding (Glanville-Hearson, ColB, GrW 01-03) for the unprudish readers of FHM magazine. (She's no stranger to the National Theatre, where Howard Davies (MaA 56-63) directed her in Gorky's Philistines, and she'll play opposite Patrick Stewart in The Merchant of Venice in Stratford this summer.)

Irrepressible, indefatigable, indomitable

SCROLL down this page for a frank and affectionate obituary of Phyllis Riddiford (Hertford Staff 70-85), who died in October aged 91. The ladies of the Unofficial Forum add their memories.

Waste not

ENVIRONMENTAL lawyer Amanda Stubbs (Atkinson, 7's 78-85) explains a 2007 Appeal Court judgment regarding the re-use of lubricating oil as fuel oil (1 min):

Airborne again

EVIDENTLY making a good recovery from her nasty accident at the Worthing International Birdman Festival, comedian Holly Walsh (LHB 92-99) now has a modest website and seems to be gigging away unstoppably. "She's gifted with snappy wit and crackling talent and has polished a standup routine that is as feelgood and funny as the best bubblegum pop" ~ The Guardian

Libertarian anarchist

MARK THOMAS (ColB 74-81) talks to Colin Somerville (LaA 68-75):

Educated at primary school in Clapham, he won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital boarding school, Horsham, Sussex, in 1974, which technically makes him a "means-tested public schoolboy". Pupils still wear uniforms from the Tudor period, an eccentricity which causes him to refer to it as the "Mediaeval Centre for Transvestism".

Larger than life

SORRY to report the death at 78 of Lt-Gen Sir Michael Gray (MaB 42-50), former Colonel Commandant of the Parachute Regiment.

Summer night on the water

TWO Delius songs, tenderly handled by the BBC Singers under conductor Simon Joly (ColA, MdB 62-71) (4 mins):

Hols cut to fit

SALLYANDALICE.COM - half of which is Sally Kirby (LHB 89-96) - offers bespoke holidays to beautiful and exotic places, especially in Africa and the Middle East.

AV: it's not fair!

ED HALL (LaA 79-86) wants to keep our first-past-the-post electoral system.

New light on Old Baldy

BETTER late that never to wave a flag for Such Deliberate Disguises: The Art of Philip Larkin (hbk £65, pbk £24.99) by Dr Richard Palmer (Horsham Staff 74-81), one of the most gifted and best liked CH masters of his time.

A proper send-off

HIS South African students sing goodbye to Nicholas McInerny (ThB 72-79) after a scriptwriting course last year (1 min):

Devastating consequences?

IF you oppose the current proposal to suspend the British Council's language assistants scheme, you may wish to sign this petition co-written by the secretary of Leeds University's German Society, Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett (LHB, GrE 07-09).

Hungry for more

RUGBYMAN Andrew Higgins (ThA 92-99) has been back in action this season, playing for the Exeter Chiefs (after time out running an organic restaurant in Paris). Here's what he had to say about it in July.

"The Justin Bieber of the New Left"

IN this long and sympathetic New Statesman piece on the student protest movement, Ben Beach (LaA, GrE 01-08) appears again and again:

Ben Beach is the Justin Bieber of the new left: a baby-faced riot messiah from Bethnal Green in east London with a tendency to hog the megaphone at demonstrations. He was trained in street activism by the Socialist Workers' Party, making him one of a minority of student protesters with a background in far-left politics… "We're using an economic model that's based on debt - and that's why every decade we have a recession, each one worse than the last, and why every time the poor are hit hardest. The root of this crisis was the free market, and the only solution we've been given by any political party is more of a free market. Parliament is not addressing what caused the problems, and so society needs to."

A seven-minute TV interview with Ben, back in December:

Bring on the maiden aunts

SUNDAYS aren't what they were when Doraine Potts (Truscott, 3's 44-52) was young.

Tongues of their own

ONCE part of the Duchy of Normandy, the Channel Islands have produced a rich stream of Norman-language literature extending from the twelfth century to the present day, exploring "themes such as economic expansion across the Atlantic to North America and elections at home; love and limpets; witchcraft, war and women's emancipation; slave-trading and seaweed." This neglected tradition is revealed to a wider audience in a new and intriguing anthology co-edited by that veritable incarnation of the islands, Geraint Jennings (ColA 77-84).

Second of seven husbands

MEDIA coverage of Dame Elizabeth Taylor's death is focussing, understandably, on her two marriages to Richard Burton, but from 1952 to 1957 she was married to another (albeit lesser) film star, Michael Wilding (MaA 22-28), seen above with Taylor and their sons.
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UPDATE (6pm): Burton's nephew Guy Masterson (Mastroianni, PeA 72-79) has just been interviewed on the BBC News channel, sharing his memories of Dame Elizabeth.

Wall of sound

THIS takes thirty seconds to get into its stride, but it's worth the wait: "A Round of Three Country Dances in One" by Thomas Ravenscroft (Music Master 1618-22) (2½ mins):

Sound the trumpets

AN organ recital by Catherine Ennis (6's 65-71, Horsham Staff c. 85) is always a treat, but the one next Tuesday at 1pm (on her home turf at St Lawrence Jewry, London EC2) is particularly special: she'll have two trumpeters playing alongside her, and the programme will include concerti for two trumpets by Vivaldi and Torelli.

Doubly honoured

GEOFFREY ARDEN (MdB 41-47), professor of ophthalmology at City University, London, was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in 2008 - a rare honour, as there are only fifty such Fellows - and last year an international symposium was held in Munich to mark his eightieth birthday. Plenty of photos of him on its website, looking pleasingly hale and hearty.