Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

text, had acquired a collection of Chinese books, and objets d'artes; he was a
composer and already an authority, even then, on Balkan and Chinese music. A
Fellow of Jesus College, I benefited from intellectually stimulating dinners in his
rooms when we talked about a wide range of topics and sampled the products of the
Jesus College kitchen, which included their famous crême brulées. His spacious
rooms housed a clavichord, and he was a practiced performer on it. Sadly the
invention of the electron microscope overtook his light microscopy studies, but he
went on to become a Lecturer in Oriental Studies, a measure of his intellectual
stature. He made an outstanding contribution to Chinese studies at Cambridge; he
"single-handed reconstructed the court music of the Tang Dynasty".
I took the opportunity to go to the many concerts on offer in Cambridge: King's
College Chapel, other colleges, CUMS, and in London, the Albert Hall mainly, but
also the lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, at which Myra Hess among
others performed. Christopher Waddams, the Dean, who was I believe tone deaf,
took me to my first ballet performance at Sadler's Wells, Schumann's Papillons. I was
entranced, and later made a point of going to evening performances at the Royal
Opera House, where I saw for the first time classical ballet, like Swan Lake and
Giselle, with Dame Margot Fonteyn and Moira Shearer and Robert Helpman among
others. I remember my first taste of modern ballet, the New York Theatre Ballet, and
Jerome Robbins’ "Fancy Free".
I also began to go to the opera later, shortly after the war ended, starting with a
performance of Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutte", by the Vienna State Opera, at Covent
Garden. In my memory it was a rich, elegant, joyous, lavish and colourful
production enhanced by the sparkling contrast with wartime and post-war greyness
and austerity. I also went to plays, but don't remember them now - and of course
we went to the Windmill Theatre. In those days I would take the train down to
London, queue for a ticket to a show, to stand at the back of the stalls for the evening
performance. The choice afterwards was to stay until the end and take the milk
train, after some hours at the station, or leave early for the 11.30pm train from
Liverpool Street. I spent many nights on a station bench. There was much else on in
Cambridge too, from the “Footlights” to Shakespeare’s or Greek Plays, such as
Aristophanes, "The Frogs" (“Brekekekex co-ax co-ax” etc.), from Jazz concerts to King’s
College Chapel.
I was a keen member of the CU Film society and particularly recall: Hedy
Lamarr in “Extasy” (in which she made brief appearances in the nude), “Le roi
s'amuse”, “Jour de Fête”, “Le Jour se lève”, “Cabinet of Dr Caligari”, the “Battleship
Potemkin”, Eisenstein’s “Ivan the Terrible”. The Marx Bros “Night at the Opera” was
hilarious (with John Moss beside me, leg in plaster from a rugger injury, stamping
boisterously on the floor).
I was elected Secretary of the Cath’s Junior Common Room (JCR), which meant
that I was responsible for ordering the newspapers, redecorating, renewing furniture
and curtains, paying the bills and keeping the accounts. In what capacity I’m not
sure, but on one occasion I invited Marie Stopes the birth control pioneer, to give a
lecture to the JCR (or to a College Society) and took her out to dinner. Regarded as
rather daring in those repressed days the evening was a great success.
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