A. V. Cooknran Like so many of the best Times
men A. V. Cookman was Guardian trained. He was one of the post-war young Turks who made Manchester such a distinguished place journalistically in the Twenties and early Thirties—of the same group as Wadsworth, Boardman, Spring, Cardus and the young Montagues. It took him a very little while after joining the Times in 1925 to prove that to his reporter's training he had added by study and love a theatrical knowledge that made him a ready second string in the theatre depart- ment. He was a much better critic than Charles Morgan, whom he succeeded in 1939, even in the matter of style. Cookman was clear and con- cise with just as much wittiness as the Times can take and it was a great experience for readers of theatre notices suddenly to realise that they could understand what was being said without fighting their way through veils of Morganatic tortuousness. The sight of Cookman's whiter- than-white beautifully brushed hair at any theatre was the sure sign that whatever might be on at any other theatre this one was the most important play of the. night. He loved theatres and actors and other critics (with a couple of ex- ceptions) and the Garrick Club. He especially loved Stratford-upon-Avon where, until some stupid quarrel sent him to a different hotel, he used to delight after the play td 'sit in the lounge of the Swan's Nest yarning away for hours over pints of Flower's. He did not need Agate's cham- pagne to keep hint sparkling; he could do it on bitter beer.
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