The Universal Aunt

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 780, 2 July 1954, Page 10

The Universal Aunt

OME think of Aunt Daisy as an institution; I personally regard her as a phenomenon. Perhaps, like Katisha, she is an acqtired taste; perhaps the fascination of listening to the simultaneous discussion of three unrelated topics, the ecstatic description of everything, from a ballet to a new type of mattress, and the torrential flood of tortured syntax and agonised parentheses would pall if one listened to her too often, for the manner and not for the matter, as I do. But what an astonishing personality she is! The microphone simply does not exist for this Universal Aunt; she leans over the fence of the receiver each morning for a cosy gossip about anything and everything. And if the impression is often uncannily like Mrs. Nickleby, isn’t Mrs. Nickleby one of Dickens’s nicest characters? I had often wondered whether this was a supreme case of art concealing art, whether the apparent inconsequentialities were not, in fact, calculated. And hearing 1YA’s Portrait from Life-Aunt. Daisy confirmed these suspicions. On the strength of this delightful self-revelation, the 9 o'clock Aunt Daisy is a brilliant blend of technigue and personality, of intelligence and warm enthusiasm. The result is unique. Long may she flourish!