From Mr William Marshall Sir: In his review of Christina
Lamb's bio- graphical study of Stewart Gore-Browne, Robert Oakeshott mentions his threatening to drop his trousers if the management of Mpika's Crested Crane Hotel refused to serve an African who was not wearing a tie. I'm sure that this must have been a tongue- in-cheek threat. The Crested Crane in the early Sixties was just a small, single-storey hotel, which together with a couple of police houses and surrounded by jacaranda trees was set in the vast area of bush in north-eastern Zambia. Being the only stop in those days on the long, dusty dirt road from the Tanzanian border to the nearest railroad in Zambia, this lovely little hotel offered a wonderfully refreshing and relaxed break on the journey. On the two occasions I stayed there it was all very informal and I'm sure that Gore-Browne, whose own home was not far away, would have known it to be so, and would hardly have meant his threat to be taken seriously.
William Marshall
9 Mentmore Road, Linslade, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
He won't read Harty Potter..
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