"GLORIANA'S" AUTHOR REPLIES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 387, 22 November 1946, Page 14

"GLORIANA'S" AUTHOR REPLIES

Sir-Your viewsreel commentator, listening to an incident in one episode of "In the Reign of Gloriana," accuses me of over-colouring the period, and says among other things that Drake and Grenville are depicted as "regular visitors at Court." I would suggest that one episode does not make a serial and one visit to court does not make a courtier. As far as Drake is concerned, the incident used is authentic. Drake did go to court on this occasion -it was, I think, his first meeting with Elizabeth-in order to discuss with her the aspects of a further voyage-the one which was to end in Drake’s circumnavigation of the world. If your commentator had listened to other episodes in which Drake figures he would have found that the man is pictured as the antithesis of a courtier. The reference to Grenville puzzles me because Grenville, although mentioned off-stage in episode 15, which at the time of writing had not been broadcast, does not appear in character at all. Walsingham, Burleigh, Leicester, and Elizabeth, some of the main historical characters in the story certainly did know each other, and Drake certainly knew John Hawkins and Thomas Doughty. ‘The mean streets, the roving bands of cut-throats, the lack of sanitation, the ever-present threat of plague, the dislike of most Elizabethans for the niceties of personal cleanliness, their ignorances, superstitions, and prejudices are mentioned in various chapters as well as the bravado, the gusto, the sense of humour, and the awakened national conscience. Drake did climb a jtree in Panama, and he did sail round the world. Hawkins did scour the: Guinea Coast for slaves which. he sold at a profit in America. Mary of Scotland did land at’ Leigh, did escape from Lochleven. Elizabeth was finally persuaded to "sign the death-warrant and she did storm and rave when the execution was carried out. The Armada did sail and was conquered. There could have been no lack of colour in these people and these happenings, so why deliberately make pennyplain what is already tuppence-coloured? I can assure those who have so kindly taken the trouble to give "Gloriana" a fan-mail that every historical happening has been checked and cross-checked-as indeed it must be in a brosdcest to schools. Characterisation is as I saw the Elizabethars after reading all the books I could find about them, and it must be remembered that I was writing for children and had children in my mind all the time I was on the job. Fair comment is legitimate, but I do not think that one incident in a 16 episode story can possibly give a true picture of the whole.

ISOBEL

ANDREWS

(Wellington),