TALKS BY HECTOR BOLITHO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 370, 26 July 1946, Page 13

TALKS BY HECTOR BOLITHO

Jest before leaving for the United States last month, Hector Bolitho recorded a series of five talks for. the NBS, the first of which will be heard _ from 3YA on August 16, at 7.15 p.m. In this talk, entitled "New Zealand Remembered," he speaks of his prideeven» as a boy-in being a New Zealander of the third generation, recalls the days of full-rigged ships on the Waitemata, Auckland’s Queen Street without trams, and Grafton Gully before the bridge was built. And he describes a boy’s longing to see the world, how that dream came true, and his feelings on returning home again. His second talk, "I Discover England," tells of his first flat in Chelsea, of the way in which he began his literary work at Windsor Castle, and the deep impression made on him by the English scene. In "Palestine Without Politics" he describes a winter spent: at the court of

the Emir Abdullah, now ruler of Transjordan, and tells also of a stay near the Sea of Galilee, recalling scenes familiar to many Kiwis. On September 3,, 1939, he enlisted in the R.A.F. and served there until last year. This chapter of his life is covered in his fourth talk, in which he tells a revealing story about Jimmy Ward, V.C., and gives the history of the prayer-stool (made from a beam from Windsor Castle) which he presented to 75 Squadron at Feltwell. This stool is now in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Wellington, as a memorial to Jimmy Ward and other New Zealand airmen of that famous squadron. The last of the five talks is entitled "Three Thoughts on Leaving New Zealand," and represents the conclusions of a New Zealander viewing his own country again after a long sojourn overseas, |