MY adult conduct ? Let's not . have any last minute
heckling. Could 1 live my youth over again I doubt I'd alter it by an iota. I'm not a girl who wastes time looking over her shoulder. Remember what happened to Lot's wife ? Do I start to stew about yesterday, I may succeed in fouling up tomorrow. A fig for regret." Towards the end of a long bombardment the reader is peppered with the shrapnel quoted above as justly representative both of Miss Bank- head's voracious attitude to experience and of her markedly- idiosyncratic literary style. The personality which is pushed up, blow by blow, from these staccato pages is in fact rather more attractive than that fierce public image created over the years by gossip- writers, publicity-men, and herself. Even so, she is a fit subject for translation to the realm of mythology. A primitive society might even make a minor deity of her. But here we are to think of her as a woman and an actress, and while it cannot, perhaps, be said that she nothing common did upon the memorable scene of the 'twenties and 'thirties, here and in America, she must certainly be credited with a complete lack of meanness. Her book is as loud as a barrage, and its paragraphs chatter like machine guns, but sometimes there is a lull when the fog of war clears and the real Miss Bankhead can be seen, sitting a little forlornly, but game still, among the debris. She has been true to herself in her fashion. " Aware that Scotch Mist might be manhandled, he [Lord Beaverbrook] whispered : Would you like me to speak to my critics ? ' Now 1 like an enthusiastic review as well as the next waif, but I don't want an instructed verdict. I gave Max a flat no. I think he thought better of me for it." What would have happened if she had said " Yes " ? It is doubtful whether everyone mentioned by name in the autobiography will think better of Miss Bankhead for her frankness.
I. H.
Previous page
