A POPULAR READER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 386, 15 November 1946, Page 9

A POPULAR READER

Owen Simmance Signs Off

| ISTENERS who during the past eight years have enjoyed the Wednesday night readings from 3YA by Owen L. Simmance will learn with regret that these have now come to an end, Mr. Simmance has accepted a position as a field librarian with the Country Library Service, and it now turns out that the reading of convivial and merry verse which he gave on July 17 was, for the time being at any rate, his last. Mr. Simmance’s first reading was a story by W. W. Jacobs, "Alf’s Dream," which was broadcast on August 21, 1938. Passages from Northanger Abbey, the remainder of which was read in subsequent weeks, made up the other half of the programme. In those days the programmes included specially chosen music, but this was discontinued near the beginning of the war. It would not be easy to name a notable figure in the English and American literature of the past from whose

work Mr. Simmance has not read. Most memorable, perhaps, were his character readings. His interpretation, for instance, of Thomas William Robertson’s play "Caste," in which as many as five characters were on the stage at once, is something that will not soon be forgotten by those who heard it; nor is it hard to remember the generous helpings of Shakespeare, Sheridan, and Dickens and the delightful readings from Alice in Wonderland. Yes, it was all there, from Ruth and the Psalms to (was it Mr. Farjeon’s?) "The Cat That Brayed," with its almost unbearable mounting atmosphere of terror. There were some good readings from the Irish, too-Mr. Simmance’s. natural tongue became harder and harder to pick; and on at least two occasions foreign authors appeared on the programmes when translations of Dostoevski’s "The Betrothed" and Manzoni’s "The Promised Wife" were read.

F.A.

J.