Sep 4, 2012
My interview today is with John Parry the author of a humourous but
poignant book called “Not for Wimps”about men and the aging process
published by the Book Guild UK.
John Parry was the BBC's first arts correspondent and left the
corporation in the mid-90s after 12 years, he wrote a regular arts
column for the Spectator before creating and editing Sculptors, the
magazine of the Royal Society of British sculptors. He also wrote
book reviews for the Mail on Sunday. He lives in Brighton with his
wife, the actress and author, Judy Cornwell.
In this interview I talk to John about his prodigious career in the
world of the Media and he reads a selection of extracts from
his book and talks about what made him write this book?
An extracts from his book.
'The other evening, I walked into the theatre. With a dressy
celebration party afterwards, I was wearing black tie, feeling
sprightly and youthful. The occasion had all the promise of being
great fun. At least it did until the moment I approached a small
group of quite jolly young people gathered on the pavement -- and
no mercifully, I was not about to be mugged. One of the girls
simply shouted out, 'Oi, you looked like Winston Churchill.' Her
friends yelled with laughter.
I was devastated. Not for a second was I deluded enough to think
that she was saying I looked like a war hero, an inspiring orator,
a Prime Minister who led the nations to victory. What she was
saying, of course was I looked rather elderly and rotund with a
pink and shiny face from the exertion of my brisk walk. It was
crushing. I arrived at the theatre feeling rather less than
sprightly and useful. Infuriatingly, my own friends thought it was
a stoically funny when I told them the story and laughed as much as
the crowd of young people had done.'
To Buy John Parry book “Not for Wimps” click
here
Click here to to retun to front page
Music: Chansons sans paroles (1989) op. 2 Valse-Scherzo
Album: Dry Fig Trees
Artist: Gerard Satamian :To buy this music click
here