Drunk of Tunbridge Wells
Sir: You have recently published two articles dealing with the appealing side of the char- acter of the late Professor Richard Cobb (Arts, 11 May and 'Napoleon bad, Critchley good', 27 January). There was also an appalling side. Shortly after Still Life: Sketch- es from a Tunbridge Wells Childhood was published, the Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society got Professor Cobb to agree to address the members and reminisce about his memories of the town. His book had achieved a notable succes de scandale in the town, particularly amongst the Society's older members who remembered many of the characters mentioned. We thought we had pulled off a considerable coup.
On the evening in question, Professor Cobb dined, not wisely but too well, with the Society's chairman, who had to help him to the lectern. The room was packed: this was our star speaker. It was immediate- ly apparent that the Professor was hope- lessly drunk. Following the chairman's introduction, Professor Cobb started to read, in a largely inaudible and occasionally repetitive mumble, from his second (then unpublished) volume of memoirs, A Classi- cal Education. This book does not deal with Tunbridge Wells at all. The reading lasted approximately 50 minutes, at the end of which he slumped in his seat. He was in no state to answer questions and was then assisted off the stage, to faint applause.
It was one of the Society's most boring evenings ever.
David Wright
Hollin House, Court Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
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