A Quiet Wedding
AY ’HEN I first joined the staff of a newspaper dur» ing the last war, in nine cases out of ten, the reports of weddings sent in to the paper began: "A quiet but pretty wedding was solemnised yesterday at such and such a church." The hackneyed phrase of that time was "A quiet but pretty wedding." One copied the phrase with monotonous regularity. And usually the "Bride walked up the churcp on her father’s arm." There were times when I wistred she would walk up on the small of his back or anywhere else, I was so sick of it. In that office we had pasted to the wall a long list of words and phrases-hack phrases-which were not allowed in our paper, and "A quiet but pretty wedding" soon joined the group. So far as we were concerned, it was soon dead. I doubt if you ever see it to-day anywhere. Again, if a horse bolted, two bicycles collided, or a motor car ran over a bank, someone was sure to rush in with a paragraph which invariably began: " What might have been a serious accident."" Of course, if someone had got killed that beginning wouldn’t do. That phrase, too, was pasted on the wall, and died the death so far as we were concerned.-("Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax," Nelle Scanlan, 2YA, September 12.)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 119, 3 October 1941, Page 5
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230A Quiet Wedding New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 119, 3 October 1941, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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