PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RELATIONS
MARRIED TO WILFRED, the autobiography of Mabel Pickles; Odhams Press, through Whitcombe and Tombs, English price 9/6. ME, by Mary Malcolm; Cresset Press, English ptice 21/-. HE authors of these two life stories have several things in common. They have been prominent in entertainment, one as the wife of a celebrity, the other as a celebrity in her own right, with a husband in the movement; they are extroverts, as apparently most entertainers must be; they enjoy life openly; and they are happily married. Each writes about courtship, proposal and marriage. Mabel conveys her heartbreak at the loss of her only child. Mary tells how the doctor broke it to her that she had a third daughter and not a son. They began, however, in very different social spheres. Mabel’s people were Liverpool stage folk, and Wilfred Pickles a young Yorkshire builder with a passion for acting that was to make him a national figure in broadcasting and television. Mary’s grandmother was the famous beauty Lily Langtry; her father was Arthur Balfour’s secretary, with a castle in Scotland; and Mary was married by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her marriage to a writer for stage and screen took her into qa new world. In the war she joined the BBC as announcer, became widely known to soldiers abroad, and passed on to television with high assignments. Mabel has kept close to her husband, sharing the pinch of the depression, pushing him up to success, looking after him understandingly and humorously in
his showman’s moving life, and suffering agoniés at first performances. Mary made @ cafeer of her own, with a husband at home efter war service, but not at her elbow, She has much to say that is interesting about the technique and persons of broadcasting. Mabel and Wilfred have the tang and exuberance of the north, a flavour of J. B. Priestley. Mary has a West End smoothness, but her sympathies are wide. Both give the reader a warm glow of joy in work and
me ire.
A.
M.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570712.2.19.2
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 935, 12 July 1957, Page 12
Word count
Tapeke kupu
342PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RELATIONS New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 935, 12 July 1957, Page 12
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in