- 1 day ago
Part 5 of 5 of the 1979 period drama. The war is over, but Edward is dead and Vera has lost everyone she knew who went to fight in it. Tired of being at home with her neurotic mother and feeling aimless in her life, she decides to apply again for Somerville University in Oxford. Trying to make sense of the war, she applies to study history, only to find that it does not cover recent events. Miss Penrose advises her to apply for a specialist course, where she meets another student who will influence her life - Winifred Holtby. But things do not go entirely smoothly as Vera struggles to deal with the loss of her loved ones and the effects of the war...
Starring Cheryl Campbell, Joanna McCallum, Emrys James, Jane Wenham, Rosalie Crutchley, Frances Tomelty, Denis Carey, Elizabeth Spender, Jill Cowles and Tony Brookes. In tribute to the fallen for Remembrance Sunday.
Starring Cheryl Campbell, Joanna McCallum, Emrys James, Jane Wenham, Rosalie Crutchley, Frances Tomelty, Denis Carey, Elizabeth Spender, Jill Cowles and Tony Brookes. In tribute to the fallen for Remembrance Sunday.
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TVTranscript
00:00Satsang with Mooji
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05:13And what do you think?
05:17Nothing.
05:20I don't.
05:24I get so angry I could shake myself to pieces.
05:31Apart from that I don't feel anything at all.
05:37And yet I have to go through the motions of living.
05:40I suppose I ought to be grateful for being alive at all.
05:45Oh really Britain.
05:47You can't go through the rest of your life apologizing for having survived.
05:56Well I suppose the difference is that you lost people who were close to you and I didn't.
06:02The whole world seems different somehow.
06:05Everything I ever worked for.
06:09Ever dreamed about.
06:11It's just vanished.
06:13That's not true for a start.
06:15You used to dream about Oxford didn't you?
06:19Well Oxford's still there.
06:21And they'll take you?
06:25Yes next week.
06:27Well that's splendid news.
06:30Isn't it jackal girl?
06:33Do you really think so father?
06:34Of course get some qualifications behind you then you don't need to worry whatever happens.
06:40You can always earn your own living.
06:42I thought you said university women all turn into dry as dust old harridans.
06:47Ah yes.
06:48Well I mean.
06:50Well considering some of the things you've done since then.
06:54Look at her Edith.
06:56She's laughing at me.
06:58I should think they'll be glad to see you after all this time.
07:02Will only if your friends be going back too?
07:04Well apparently not.
07:06Very few of them joined up anyway.
07:09Most of them will have got jobs by now of course.
07:12Or got married.
07:18Well you'll be quite a celebrity up there then.
07:21I don't know about that.
07:26How do you do Miss Britton?
07:28Quite well thank you Miss Penrose.
07:30I'm glad to be back at last.
07:33You're living in King Edward Street this term I understand.
07:37Yes that's right.
07:38And where were you originally?
07:39Micklemore Hall.
07:41I see.
07:42I think you might find it less easy to fit in there now.
07:45Difference of age and background.
07:47I understand you've applied to read a different subject.
07:53Yes that's right.
07:55Why is that?
07:56Because I was formally reading English and now I'd like to change to history.
08:00Well that's merely a restatement of your request.
08:02You're not giving me the reason for it.
08:05It's not very easy to explain.
08:08It requires an explanation wouldn't you say?
08:12In English you were regarded as being capable of obtaining a first-class degree
08:16and you've put in a year's study.
08:18We know nothing of your aptitude for history.
08:21Yes I realize that.
08:22You will be undertaking a three-year course in two years.
08:25Handicapping yourself unnecessarily.
08:27Yes.
08:29So?
08:33Well
08:34Before the war
08:39I believed
08:41that people could live their own individual lives
08:44and not be affected by things that were happening in other parts of society
08:47and other parts of the world.
08:50I now realize this was a mistaken idea.
08:54And I'd like to understand the events of the last four years
08:57and the reasons for them.
08:59I see.
09:01You feel a knowledge of the Tudors and Stuarts would help you in this?
09:05No.
09:07I didn't realize at first what period the second year we'll be studying.
09:10But I'm hoping to fit in some lectures on modern European history
09:13and move on to that period next term.
09:15The modern period up to 1878.
09:18Is that what's meant by the modern period?
09:20That is what is meant at Oxford by the modern period.
09:24Events later than that are too recent for objective academic evaluation.
09:29I see.
09:31I have discussed this with your tutor.
09:33She informs me that one other girl has expressed an interest in the modern period.
09:38This would make it convenient for the two of you to share a weekly tutorial with the Dean of Harford.
09:43In the circumstances we are acceding to your request.
09:47Thank you Miss Britton.
09:50You seem to have a cold Miss Britton.
10:03Yes I'm sorry.
10:08You don't know anything about this other young lady who's supposed to turn up?
10:12Miss Holtby?
10:14No I don't.
10:15And...
10:17Well I suggest we give her another five minutes.
10:20And then if necessary start without her.
10:23Yes.
10:24Come.
10:25Ah Miss Holtby.
10:26Yes that's right.
10:27Well I'm so sorry I'm late.
10:28But a woman had got herself knocked down by a bike and nobody seemed to be doing anything about her.
10:43Anyway I do apologize.
10:44Yes well do sit down now that you have arrived.
10:45Yes well do sit down now that you have arrived.
10:46And I think I'd better plunge directly in Medias Reses.
10:48Um I asked each of you if you remember to submit a preliminary essay on the causes of the French Revolution so that I could assess your capabilities.
11:03Miss Britton.
11:04Quite a good effort indeed quite promising.
11:07You attribute too much weight to the personalities of the protagonists and not enough to the underlying social and economic tensions.
11:14Otherwise quite good.
11:15Miss Holtby.
11:16Yes.
11:17Did you receive a list of books I made up as indispensable introductions to the book?
11:18Yes.
11:19Yes.
11:20Did you receive a list of books I made up as indispensable introductions to the book?
11:24Yes.
11:25Thank you very much.
11:26Yes I did.
11:27I haven't had time to read them yet but I'll start today.
11:28I strongly advise you to do so.
11:29Yes.
11:30Yes.
11:31Yes.
11:32Yes.
11:33Yes.
11:34Yes.
11:35Yes.
11:36Yes.
11:37Yes.
11:38Yes.
11:39Yes.
11:40Yes.
11:41Yes.
11:42Yes.
11:43Yes.
11:44Yes.
11:45Yes.
11:47Yes.
11:48Yes.
11:49Yes.
11:50Yes.
11:51Yes.
11:52Yes.
11:53Yes.
11:54Good luck.
11:55It is also.
11:56I find your comments here very confused.
11:57Do try to avoid long involved sentences.
12:02They make your style laborious to read.
12:05Do they?
12:06I really will do my best to correct that.
12:09Quite so Ms Holtby.
12:11I don't know what to say about your spelling.
12:13It's ...
12:14it's abominable.
12:15No.
12:16It's dreadful.
12:17Everyone tells me.
12:19You should keep a dictionary at your elbow and look up every word you're unsure about.
12:24but I don't feel unsure about any of them. that's the trouble. they all look
12:28absolutely right to me.
12:43oh good. I wondered if I got the right place. I suppose so.
12:49it's not as nice as living in Hall is it? at least you can have some privacy here.
12:54what can I do for you? I've been roped in a sec of this new debating society and I
12:59wondered whether you would consider proposing the motion for next Friday's
13:02debate. the motion being? that four years travel are a better education than four
13:07years at a university. I see. well they had something on the same lines in the Union
13:13and it went down very well. of course in the men's colleges feelings run pretty
13:17high about it. all the young ones straight up from school versus all the returning
13:21war heroes. here at Somerville returning war heroes are in very short supply.
13:25well that's right. which I suppose is why you're asking me for demure. no no I'm I'm
13:32asking you because I know you feel strongly about it. how do you know how I feel?
13:37well other people have certainly got that impression that you think they're too
13:42trivial and flippant and only interested in enjoying themselves and I know you
13:49could speak about your war experiences because I've heard you mention them.
13:52not recently you haven't. people are thoroughly bored with the war and
13:56everything to do with it so I've learned to keep my mouth shut. open it just this
14:01once. won't you? when did you say? friday.
14:11all right. good.
14:15order!
14:17order! everyone will get a chance to express their views in due course. that's better.
14:25on the other hand what kind of education is offered to those who are content to spend their
14:35lives shut up in these academic ivory towers? an education for the intellect only not for the heart.
14:46it is a world where in the name of literature we are urged to sit in judgment on minds far greater
14:54than ours yet never encouraged to create anything new of our own.
14:59it is a world where in the name of history we are taught to pick over the bones of the dead conflicts
15:08of past centuries never how to treat the issues of our own times. when human fears and passions
15:15are still involved and the light of reason sorely needed. it is a world tightly guarded against any new
15:23idea that hasn't waited for 50 years in some academic ante room until it is sufficiently moribund to be allowed
15:30inside. where every scrap of bigoted prejudice and jingoistic complacency we bring with us is reinforced a hundredfold.
15:41i will readily concede that the other road to enlightenment
15:44sometimes referred to as the school of experience has its disadvantages.
15:52when it confronts you with facts you would prefer to ignore
15:54you cannot skip the next 50 pages or put the book back on the shelf.
16:01the facts have to be faced and lived through and your mind must find room to accommodate them.
16:08but at least by this route the truth comes to you intact and at first hand
16:14not filtered and edited and tidied up gutted by censorship distorted by lying propaganda
16:22and the genius of our generals.
16:27oh yes oh yes do you imagine for one moment that our mentors would be praising the masters of our
16:31government and the genius of our generals if they had been out there witnessing thousands of lies
16:40being senselessly sacrificed by their pig-headedness and incompetence?
16:45order order you don't want to know you don't want to know just put it all out of your minds eat drink and be merry
17:00not because tomorrow you may die
17:01because the dying was done for you yesterday
17:09by people it would be tactless to mention because they're dead and buried
17:15and forgotten
17:17and it would only spoil the party
17:18give it 50 years to mature into history
17:26then it will be ripe for oxford to open it up blow the dust away and wonder what went wrong
17:39if oxford is still here that is
17:41but anyone who supports this proposition is failing to distinguish between education and mere locomotion
17:54well it is a popular fallacy it was invented in the days of the grand tour by a pampered minority
18:00who had nothing better to do with their lives than try to escape their own boredom by trailing it around the
18:06continent with them and then they returned with an air of ineffable superiority as if by allowing themselves
18:14and their luggage to be transported around the capitals of europe they had absorbed by a kind of
18:20osmosis all the poetry of homer and virgil and and goethe and verlaine and the insights of
18:28plato and lucretius and galileo and voltaire and hegel and naturally understood them much better than
18:37the wretched scholars who'd merely stayed at home and studied the works of these great men
18:45in our day this affectation takes a subtler form where the stay-at-homes are no longer taunted
18:52because they have been deprived of experiencing beauty and luxury and grandeur
18:58instead they are scorned for not having experience squalor ugliness and perilous adventures
19:07but the fact is that for most people here today because they happen to be born too late
19:11these were simply not available and no one has the right to say who would or who would not have
19:17responded to the call if it had come at the right time for them
19:21we have now been reminded of the war and the sacrifices that were made but madam president
19:31i venture to assert that these sacrifices were not made that england should never
19:35smile again that never again should youth go hand in hand with joy and laughter for whoever bears the guilt
19:44of those dark years it cannot be those who were children at the time
19:50the men who died were fighting that their country might be a a freer a wiser and a happier place
19:59for we must use that freedom we must study hard and gain that wisdom but note this also if we are ashamed or afraid of the happiness
20:09then their sacrifice will have been in vain
20:22i will end with a quotation from as you like it which expresses my views in a nutshell
20:26i had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad and to travel for it too
20:43the proposer of the motion apart from having a relish for dwelling on blood and gore that would not have
20:50have disgraced madame defage
20:55seems unless i have misunderstood her to have conceived a kind of prejudice against books
21:03well i know we have it on good authority that there are sermons in stones and books in the running brooks
21:11indeed the opening speech this evening not only sounded like a sermon and a very stony one into the bargain
21:18but like tennyson's brook it seemed to go on forever
21:28however it does seem a little odd that anyone who has deserted oxford in favor of the university of life
21:38and still clearly has such a low opinion of the place should ever have deigned to come back at all
21:48so
21:53those in favor of the motion
21:57those against
22:03i declare the motion has been defeated
22:18those against the motion has been defeated
22:24oh
22:25oh
22:28come in
22:34it's you
22:36you sent me this letter
22:38well you did say you wanted to see me
22:40I asked for an appointment.
22:42I meant your room in Somerville.
22:44Oh I see.
22:46I just thought if you wanted to talk it would be better somewhere quiet.
22:49My room gets a bit like Piccadilly circuits.
22:52How nice for you.
22:54If you prefer to come to...
22:59I merely wanted to ask you
23:01why you thought it necessary to go to all those lengths to humiliate me.
23:05I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean.
23:08I mean that so-called debate.
23:10When I was deliberately set up
23:12to be pilloried and ridiculed publicly
23:14tell me was it your own idea?
23:16It was nothing like that at all.
23:18I just wanted something controversial.
23:20It had gone down well in some other colleges and...
23:22If you mean men's colleges the position there is entirely different.
23:25There are plenty of people who've come back
23:27with medals and stripes to show for it.
23:29It's hardly the same thing as a whole meeting
23:31jeering at one solitary VAD.
23:33They meant no harm.
23:35It was just intended as a light-hearted sort of dislike.
23:39Light-hearted?
23:41Oh I see.
23:43Oh forgive me.
23:46You see it didn't only take four years of my life.
23:49It took the man I was engaged to.
23:52And then two more of the people I cared about most in the world.
23:56Then it took my brother.
23:58The only person left I could still talk to and know he'd always understand.
24:02I was out there through the worst of it.
24:04And I still get nightmares and wake up trembling and crying
24:08until for nights on end I'm afraid to go to sleep at all.
24:10So you see maybe that's why I'm a bit slow to see the funny side of it.
24:14I hadn't realized that agony and mutilation
24:18death and bereavement
24:20have become things to make jokes about.
24:24I really am deeply sorry.
24:27I'll tell the president she'll send you a written apology.
24:30Well it's a bit late for that now.
24:34But if your members are going to use these debates
24:36to make personal attacks on people
24:38I think you'd better disband the society
24:41before it does any more harm.
25:03But that's what I was trying to do.
25:05I've been slogging at it all week.
25:07I'm not questioning your diligence Miss Holtby.
25:10You've definitely made some improvements since last term.
25:13You've a better grasp of your material.
25:15You have a few ideas but it's shapeless.
25:17You get bogged down in subordinate clauses.
25:20Try and learn something from Miss Britton's approach.
25:24I know it's occasionally too journalistic
25:27but it is at least clear don't you see.
25:30Vivid, crisp, orderly.
25:34I know.
25:36Oh well.
25:39Thank you for going on at me.
25:41I'm sure you're right.
25:43I'll just have to keep beavering away.
25:46Why isn't she here today? Is she not well?
25:49I don't know.
25:50I'm sorry.
25:51I never see her between tutorials.
25:52Where is it?
25:56What's that?
25:57It's an olive branch.
25:58Am I allowed to come in?
26:11I can't really well stop you can I?
26:13You can easily.
26:14If you say buzz off I'll just dump these on the table and buzz.
26:17What are these?
26:18From the Dean.
26:19Your essay with the usual commendations.
26:23These from me.
26:24I'm afraid I couldn't think of anything original.
26:27And I found this letter on the mat.
26:34Can I do anything?
26:36No thank you.
26:37It's only a chill.
26:39What hot lemon drink?
26:41There aren't any lemons.
26:43Aha.
26:44Shopping then.
26:45Honey, lemons, cinnamon, aspirins.
26:48How are you off for food?
26:50I'm not hungry.
26:52Hmm.
26:54I wonder.
26:56Have you got a thermometer?
26:58I've taken it.
27:00It's 101.
27:02Shivering and off your food.
27:04If this wasn't Oxford I'd say a touch of the old PUO.
27:11What do you know about PUO?
27:13I did do a year in France you know.
27:16You did?
27:18You were a VAD?
27:19Good heavens no.
27:21Nothing so genteel.
27:23I was in the wax.
27:24But I had done a year's nursing in Civvy Street so I did work with VADs for a while.
27:28Why did you never tell me?
27:30Tell you?
27:31It wasn't exactly a secret.
27:33Most people knew.
27:34But they definitely told me I was the only one to come back to Somerville.
27:37I expect you were when you arrived.
27:39I was a bit later getting home.
27:41Don't you remember I hadn't even read the books.
27:44The dean thought he hadn't bothered.
27:46Why did you never tell him?
27:47I don't know.
27:48He put me off.
27:49There was something about him that reminded me of my old colonel in the army.
27:53All the colonels hated wax.
27:56We weren't supposed to be ladies.
27:59Oh at least let me make up the fire.
28:07It's nearly gone out shall I?
28:09If you like.
28:11I don't know why you're bothering to do all this for me.
28:14Oh don't worry I carry on like this with everybody.
28:17Why?
28:18Why?
28:19Oh I don't know.
28:20It's kind of superstition I think.
28:23You see all my life I've been incredibly lucky.
28:27Lovely home.
28:28Wonderful family.
28:29Never short of anything.
28:31Always been ridiculously healthy.
28:34Everything I've ever wanted has come so easily.
28:38Even in the war the one man I prayed for every night came back alive.
28:43And I've done nothing to deserve it.
28:46So I tend to barge in on people trying to work off them.
28:51Well not guilty exactly.
28:53Sort of debt.
28:55From what I've heard most people barge in on you.
29:00Well yes that happens too.
29:02I'm stopping you reading your letter.
29:04I'll shut up.
29:10Is it from somebody nice?
29:12Beverly Nichols.
29:14Beverly Nichols?
29:16That blonde boy showed off at the poetry reading looks about 15.
29:21That's the one.
29:23Good lord.
29:24He's one of the editors of Oxford Outlook.
29:27He sent them an article.
29:29He's accepting it by return of post.
29:31Oh but that's marvelous.
29:34Oh now you won't be sorry I came.
29:37Oh you wouldn't have had anyone to tell and you would have been bursting.
29:41Well it's only an undergraduate magazine.
29:44Only?
29:45What better place to start if you want to be a writer?
29:48When I sent a piece in I had to wait six weeks even for an answer.
29:52Then they said no.
29:53Is that what you want to be too?
29:55Oh lord yes.
29:56More than anything in the world.
29:58I've written 300 pages of a novel.
30:02Really?
30:03But the hell of it is that this is the one and only department where the luck of the hope is lets me down.
30:08Well sometimes after one of those tutorials and he's told me what your stuff is like.
30:14Then he's told me what mine is like.
30:16I just go back to my room and howl.
30:19Oh well.
30:21Congratulations.
30:23I'm so glad for you.
30:33Where are you stationed?
30:35Uh varied.
30:36Camiers.
30:37Abbeville.
30:38Hutchinville.
30:39I was at Eatup.
30:40Quite close then.
30:41Are you in a hurry?
30:42No.
30:43Just wondered if I might have a cup of coffee perhaps before you go.
30:46Where do you keep the cups?
30:48No.
30:49Just wondered if I might have a cup of coffee perhaps before you go.
30:55Where do you keep the cups?
31:18How's your head?
31:19A bit better.
31:20Anyhow it's all over.
31:21I really made a mess of that third paper.
31:37That question about scotage.
31:39I couldn't make head or tail of it.
31:41I didn't go to sleep till five o'clock this morning.
31:44Well it's hardly surprising.
31:46You've only just got over the flu.
31:49And in the viva.
31:52I must have been looking a bit washed out.
31:55While we were waiting somebody offered me some brandy.
31:59I went sailing in feeling frightfully cheerful and full of sang-froid.
32:04But when I think about it I honestly believed I was drunk.
32:09I don't know what they must have thought.
32:12Well it's too late to worry about it now anyway.
32:16Will it make any difference do you think?
32:20Sorry.
32:21Well you're not getting a first class do you?
32:24Oh no.
32:26Bit of a blow at the time.
32:29You seem to have thought I stood a good chance.
32:32Whereas with Winifred they'd have been quite satisfied with a third.
32:35She only just missed her first too.
32:37She doesn't strike one as being clever does she?
32:40I mean she's very pleasant and cheerful but quite ordinary really.
32:43Ah there's more in that young woman than meets the eye.
32:47Yes there is.
32:49Oh Vera do you have to do that now?
32:50I mean if you really set on leaving home for good you might at least talk to us while you are here.
32:59What did you want to talk about?
33:01Well what you're going to live on for a start.
33:03I've got the shares that Father gave me.
33:05You can't live on those.
33:07Of course not.
33:09But I should be teaching one half day a week at St. Monica's.
33:12I've got two pupils who want coaching two hours a week.
33:15I write articles and so on.
33:17Supposing nobody buys them?
33:19Well I should go on writing them until they do start buying them.
33:22Then I might do some lecturing.
33:25Would you get paid for that?
33:27I don't know.
33:28I don't care.
33:29Should go on doing it until I'm good enough to get paid.
33:32The only way to learn is to do it.
33:34I should have thought after all those years you'd have finished learning.
33:37I hope that day will never come.
33:39You've got to be very careful about this sort of thing.
33:42Mother I promise we won't starve.
33:45Winifred and I found a studio.
33:47It's very cheap.
33:48There's a gas stove.
33:49We can do our own cooking and cleaning.
33:51Yes but how long has that gone to last?
33:53I thought you said that Winifred had a young man.
33:56Well he's gone to South America.
33:59Could engage there.
34:02I see.
34:04So all those years of learning and working and studying and getting a degree
34:08just ends up with you two women all alone.
34:10Cooped up together in Nagara.
34:12What was the point of it all?
34:13The point is that it'll give us time to do the things we really want to do.
34:17And work for the things we really believe in.
34:19So jazz?
34:20Well peace for one thing.
34:22The League of Nations.
34:23You think it's gonna work that league?
34:25Of course.
34:26Didn't you read only last week Serbia and Albania are on the very brink of war.
34:31If that had happened goodness knows how many other countries would have been dragged in.
34:35If the league was there it stepped in and put an end to it.
34:38Don't you see everything's changing.
34:40It'll be a better world and we'll be helping to build it.
34:43Well I don't know.
34:45It seems an unnatural sort of life to me especially for a woman.
34:49Mother.
34:50Let's call a spade a spade.
34:52I'm 26 and you want me to throw myself into one last desperate attempt to acquire a husband
34:57before it's too late.
34:58I'm not desperate dear.
34:59Sometimes you still look no more than 20.
35:04But it's not going to happen.
35:06Too many women of my age.
35:08Surplus they call us like army stores.
35:11Good gracious.
35:13I see the times have suggested that all the unwanted old maids might be encouraged to emigrate.
35:18How do you encourage people to emigrate?
35:21Are they offering to pay the fares?
35:22No.
35:23They're painting alluring pictures of parts of the British Empire where men are not so scarce.
35:31They do say that Canada's very nice.
35:43It's a good idea.
35:44You're looking very domesticated.
35:45Yes.
35:46It's going to be a sort of soup.
35:47Ah.
35:48Will you join us?
35:49No thank you.
35:50I've had an excellent lunch at my club.
36:04oh this is Bloomsbury eh? this is. let me take your coat. no no I'll hang on to it
36:14for a while if you don't mind. that's the best you can do for a fire?
36:22the trouble with this grate is it takes half a sack of coal in an afternoon.
36:27tell me did mother send you? no no it was more an idea. I've just been to see my
36:33tale and I thought I'd venture into the blue stocking belt to see how you're
36:36getting on. I expect I'll have to give a full report though later on. a studio you
36:43call this? well the landlady does. the last tenant was a painter. still if it's what
36:52you really want. well it'll look different when it's properly furnished. you'll be able to
36:57tell all your friends you dropped in on a couple of bohemian girls. and how's the
37:02work? my short story's just been turned down again. so is my article on equal pay.
37:07how's the boot getting on? nearly half finished. so is Winifred's. now what's all the
37:11correspondence? election addresses. ah yes. now you're still back in the
37:18lib lab candidate Harris isn't it? he's a very good candidate.
37:25what do your people say about it all? don't they think it's a strange life for a
37:29young woman? getting into political dogfights standing up on public platforms?
37:33I'm afraid they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. not since my mother's gone and
37:37got herself elected to the East Riding County Council. your mother? that's right. the
37:43first woman ever to get on to it. well well well. it's a different world from the
37:50one I knew. it'll be a better one. truly it will. you should be very proud of Vera
37:55Mr. Britton. she's giving her first lecture for the League of Nations Union on
37:59Tuesday. oh where? the baptist chapel at Watford. it holds 2,000 people. good God. 2,000 people? hmm?
38:11well doesn't that worry you at all? terrifies me. I've been working on the speech
38:18all week. already it's two and a half hours long. it's not finished yet.
38:23from that point the concept of collective security was no longer a vague... hmm can't read that.
38:32aspiration. oh aspiration. cherished by a small band of idealists but a Solomon
38:38binding commitment embodied in articles 10 12 and 15 of the Treaty of Versailles and
38:43in the Covenant of the League of Nations and based on three main principles. one
38:49self-determination. two territorial integrity. three collective security.
39:05well look then. to put it another way. countries could decide whether to rule
39:12themselves yes. and if anyone attacked them the other countries will get
39:19together and put a stop to it. it's the truth. about ten of them and not in the
39:27hall at all. it was in the vestry. she said we've a real treaty for you tonight
39:32ladies. this young person's been sent all the way from headquarters to tell you
39:36about the League of Nations.
39:40is it all right for a dog who's to eat flowers?
39:43I shouldn't think they'd do him any harm.
39:46let me put them down there while I polish the table.
39:49come on.
39:51get him a lettuce when I go out.
39:54I've been quite opulent after selling two articles in ten days.
39:59not to mention the cheque for the lecture tour in Scotland.
40:02that's wonderful V. and I've sold two in six weeks. that's pretty good compared to last year.
40:08what impresses me though is the way you turn them out.
40:12it takes me at least five or six drafts before I get it right.
40:16well I am older and I've had more experience.
40:20oh it can't just be that. I think it's because you're a born writer.
40:24well I certainly hope so.
40:26because when I'm lying awake
40:28and having a bad night
40:30I sometimes think that's the only thing that's worth anything about me.
40:35come now.
40:37I'll get it.
40:41thank you.
40:48two for you and two for me.
40:55oh no.
40:58oh that is.
41:00it's the manuscript come back.
41:02what an astonishing thing.
41:12who's it from?
41:14it's been forwarded from Somerville.
41:16listen dear Miss Britton
41:17I'm almost sure I saw you in the Radcliffe camera last Wednesday.
41:20you probably won't remember me
41:22but I used to see you at Somerville debates.
41:24won't you have tea with me one afternoon
41:27or come on the river?
41:29it's just scribbled on the back of a visiting card.
41:32have you ever heard of him?
41:34he must have seen us last week when we went up for the Gordy.
41:38what a cheek!
41:40writing to someone like that he's never met.
41:50we regret we cannot recommend publication of your novel The Dark Tide.
41:54however...
41:56oh well they think I should go on writing.
41:58thanks for nothing.
42:02they advised me to wait until I've settled down
42:04and had a little more experience of life
42:06before attempting another novel.
42:08ah!
42:11that's eight publishers now.
42:12I'm beginning to run out.
42:14can't be that bad.
42:16Rosalind Corley didn't think so.
42:18she ought to know.
42:19poor thing's getting to look quite battered.
42:23what's the matter?
42:25Vera.
42:27they've made me an offer for my novel.
42:31and have you rolled?
42:33yes.
42:34who has?
42:35ah...
42:36somebody called John Lane.
42:38it's only a small company.
42:40let me see.
42:54very nice.
42:56congratulations.
42:58are you off then?
43:10yes.
43:12I've got to pick up some leaflets.
43:14I mustn't be late.
43:16Vera.
43:17Vera.
43:18you know this is the day I'm going up to Yorkshire.
43:22I'd forgotten.
43:23well I'll probably be gone by the time you come back.
43:26yes.
43:28I'll see you next week then.
43:32goodbye.
43:36my dear Winifred.
43:40I know the reviews will be nice.
43:42it is a kind book as well as a clever one.
43:45and has always inspired me with a secret envy.
43:48you make me feel very humble.
43:51one who talks but never achieves.
43:53while you quietly achieve and don't talk.
43:56you'll be quite famous by the time you're my age.
44:00and one rare thing will make your success the more distinguished.
44:04and that is that you cannot get any success as great as the success that you deserve.
44:26oh you haven't been here all day have you?
44:35yes I have.
44:37where have you been?
44:39having lunch with lady Rhonda.
44:41and thereafter.
44:43being very sick.
44:45which is charming.
44:46absolutely.
44:47but she gave me lobster.
44:49and I felt that if I rejected her lobster
44:52she'd have every right to reject my articles.
44:55as it is she's taken four of them.
44:57and the first will appear in next week's time and time.
44:59good.
45:01especially good with the new magazine.
45:03you could become a regular.
45:05you haven't opened any of your letters?
45:07no.
45:09face it I've been yesterday's lot.
45:11I see this is going to call for strong measures.
45:14come on sit up straight.
45:16now.
45:17you want me to weed out the nasty ones?
45:19no.
45:20we'll take half each.
45:22right now let's get organized.
45:24paper knife.
45:25waste paper basket.
45:27and a spot of dutch curry Jane.
45:32well.
45:33at least your book's been noticed.
45:36I didn't get a tenth of this when mine came out.
45:41at least none of yours were anonymous or vicious.
45:43do you want the press cuttings then?
45:49might as well.
45:50in at the deep end.
45:54oh really.
45:56once upon a time an oxford don kissed a woman student.
46:00and miss Vera Britton immediately sat down and wrote a book about it.
46:03the man's a fool.
46:07what?
46:09miss Davenport thinks that the gloomy bursa is a caricature of herself.
46:16that's ridiculous.
46:18if she was anybody in real life she was my Aunt Sarah.
46:21a somewhat lurid picture of Oxford life.
46:26I don't think it's lurid do you?
46:28rubbish.
46:29he must have been raised on Ethel M. Dell.
46:31oh.
46:33oh it gets better though.
46:36she has the root of the matter in her.
46:38she knows how to communicate sympathy.
46:40she has spiritual understanding of character.
46:43that's the best one yet.
46:46oh listen to the Daily Herald.
46:49she tells her story with so much gusto it's hard to leave it.
46:53he says it kept him up for two in the morning.
46:56oh cheers the Daily Herald.
46:58cheers.
47:00oh I say V.
47:02here is a landmark.
47:04an editor actually asking you to write an article.
47:09he's done it again.
47:10who's done what again?
47:11remember that man who asked me to come with him to the river?
47:16he's read my book with the utmost pleasure.
47:20what does he want you to do this time?
47:23nothing.
47:25only to accept the enclosed.
47:27oh may I see?
47:30his first published work apparently.
47:33which he says there is no necessity to acknowledge.
47:36what's it about?
47:37philosophy.
47:39seems he's a lecturer.
47:42doesn't give up easily does he?
47:44well at least this approach is a little less brash than his last effort.
47:48let me see.
47:49where is he?
47:56I was at new college.
47:57that's where Edward would have been.
48:01exhibitioner too.
48:03will you answer him this time?
48:06oh I think I must.
48:08just a thank you note don't you think?
48:13he writes rather well.
48:15I wouldn't be surprised if he turned up here one of these days.
48:19that's hardly likely.
48:20it's more than likely.
48:22I'm surprised it hasn't happened before this.
48:25I mean not him necessarily but somebody.
48:29could hardly expect that this arrangement would go on forever.
48:33I don't see why not.
48:35it's not the way things work that's all.
48:38things work the way we want them to work.
48:41listen as far as I'm concerned the last two years have been the happiest in my whole life.
48:45and the most peaceful.
48:48mine too.
48:49well then.
48:50I've no intention of letting anybody break that up.
48:53so let's stop talking rot and get on with the job.
48:55agreed?
48:57here's to the future.
49:09for the moment my hand is set to the plough of the theory of politics.
49:14I do it chiefly because the war has left me with the feeling that nothing is more imperative
49:18than to clear up his conflicting political dogmata.
49:22he's doing a year in an American university.
49:26sounds quite a sensible sort of person.
49:29that's damning with faint praise.
49:34I can envisage somebody rather like Sidney Webb.
49:38you know.
49:40worthy but prosaic.
49:43two things seem to me at the present time momentous and worthwhile.
49:49that for the equalization of the position of women.
49:52and that for economic security for the worker.
49:56whoever puts his hand to the plough of the first will be told he is furthering immorality and the breakup of the family.
50:02whoever puts his hand to the second will be told he's a Bolshevik.
50:05no I did not meet your brother.
50:23I should have come up the following year.
50:26I should like to die that way.
50:28for us who live on there is the feeling of death.
50:32but for those qui pro patria demicantes procre occo buerunt.
50:37do you know the new college description?
50:40the music of the paean is at one with and without break passes straight over into the requiem.
50:46I don't see that it matters whether it was the Mopoli or the Asiago plateau.
50:51if he's coming back to England of course you must see him.
50:57yes I must mustn't I?
50:59well you can't leave things the way they are.
51:02it's impossible.
51:03you haven't written anything for nearly six weeks except letters.
51:08I know I don't know what to do.
51:11my dear it seems to me that the choice has been taken out of your hands.
51:15but it's ridiculous.
51:16I mean how can you fall in love with a man's mind?
51:20until he sent that photograph I didn't even know what he looked like.
51:24is he what you expected?
51:27I didn't know what to expect.
51:30you talk as if something had been decided but that's not true.
51:33I'm keeping a perfectly open mind.
51:37one thing that is clear to me though is that we have an awful lot in common.
51:41oh you say he's a socialist.
51:45I thought you were sort of liberal.
51:48oh Winifred you know I've been moving further left all the time.
51:52and you say he's a catholic.
51:57do you know what it reminded me of in a strange kind of way?
52:01Roland?
52:03it's a very odd coincidence don't you think?
52:05my dear I don't think anything at all.
52:08I'm just admiring the perfect openness of your mind.
52:16when is he coming?
52:19on Friday.
52:20he's got tickets for St Joan.
52:24do you realize what day that will be?
52:27no.
52:28it'll be the anniversary of Edward's death.
52:42again the shadowed pool shall break in dimples round your feet.
52:47and when the thrush sings in your wood
52:50unknowing you may meet another stranger sweet.
52:54and if he is not quite so old
52:57as the boy you used to know
52:59and less proud too
53:01and worthier
53:03you may not let him go
53:05and daisies are truer than passion flowers
53:09it will be better so.
53:11better so.
53:12for us.
53:14and
53:16that's the end.
53:18that's the end of the night.
53:19unknowing.
53:22that would be a wonderful one.
53:24the end of the night.
53:25I want to see.
53:27that we will make right now.
53:28ORGAN PLAYS
53:58ORGAN PLAYS
54:28ORGAN PLAYS
54:33ORGAN PLAYS
54:36ORGAN PLAYS
54:42ORGAN PLAYS
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