THE PERSON WHO writes about plays for the Evening Standard
seems to have allowed ill temper to get the better of him when he named the murderer in Miss Agatha Christie's latest who- dunit. I can't blame him for not being thrilled to the marrow by the play, but he really should not take it upon himself to chastise Miss Christie by the oblique expedient of spoiling the thriller for her innumerable fans. When I noticed this reviewer's breach of convention I assumed that he had simply made an error. Such mistakes are easily made. But when an indignant reader wrote in to complain, a footnote was appended to the letter declaring that 'Miss Christie is apparently immune from ordinary criticism. Revealing the name of the murderer is the critic's ultimate weapon—used rarely and only in despera- tion. It is done, and with all due modesty, for the ultimate good of the theatre.' How modest can you get?
AN Evening Standard reporter, Anne Sharpley, has paid a visit to Suez to find out what the men left behind in the base are doing without their wives. She reports : `And in the evening?
"We play tombola, whist, go to the pictures, listen to the wireless—and drink."
Which is the formula that the British Empire was founded on : Not fife and drum, but pub and flick Are what have made the Empire tick : Its builders, gloriously blotto Won its foundation stone—at Lotto.
PHAROS
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