Titus Mills’s day job is as headmaster of Port Regis Prep School. But he has dedicated much of his life to preserving the memories of his friends and heroes, the veterans of the Arnhem Campaign of September 1944, immortalised in A Bridge Too Far (1977).
Titus Mills’s day job is as headmaster of Port Regis Prep School. But he has dedicated much of his life to preserving the memories of his friends and heroes, the veterans of the Arnhem Campaign of September 1944, immortalised in A Bridge Too Far (1977).
When Titus first visited Arnhem, nearly 20 years ago, there were hundreds of veterans at the commemorations. In the new issue, Titus salutes the only surviving British veteran:
‘Geoff Roberts landed in a glider outside Arnhem, in the Netherlands, in September 1944, he was 19 years old.
‘It was the opening day of Operation Market Garden, the bold Allied gamble that promised a swift end to the war, but instead became one of Britain’s greatest military disasters.’
Gyles Brandreth remembers the guests on his Rosebud podcast, who reveal their earliest memory:
‘Miriam Margolyes, the farting actress and matchless interpreter of the works of Charles Dickens, recalled handing her auntie a poo from her own nappy.
‘Charles Dance, still dashingly handsome as he turns 80 this October, remembered lying on his back in his pram and seeing an array of smiling female faces peering admiringly into the pram, all cooing.
‘He recalled losing his virginity to an older woman, in one of our fruitier episodes. We have had a few of those: check out Rupert Everett and Diana Rigg’s daughter, Rachael Stirling.’
When Princess Margaret visited Ireland in 1965, she sparked a small riot. Irish writer Emily Hourican has based her new novel, A House in Winter, on the terrifying, forgotten story. She writes,
‘On the evening of the Princess’s arrival to stay with Viscount De Vesci in Abbeyleix, County Laois, two petrol bombs were thrown over the gates.
‘The second bomb blew up a power transformer, shattering windows in the house and plunging it into darkness. Trees were felled to block roads around the house. The roads were impassable for two days.’
Paul Cartledge, Professor of Classics at Cambridge, has written a new book,Pericles: Statesman, Demagogue, Eccentric.
As he writes, ‘Pericles had some involvement with the rebuilt Parthenon, but he was even more closely associated with the brand new Odeion (our odeon) or Singing-Hall, located beneath the Acropolis.
‘There, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes showcased their tragic or comic dramas.
‘Pericles clearly loved the theatre – except perhaps when comedians teased him for the shape of his head (like a squill, allegedly) or for his surprisingly amorous private life.’
And I review Agrippa, the new novel by Robert Harris. As the old joke goes, whenever the Emperor Augustus was in trouble, he’d bellow, ‘Get Agrippa!’ (Say it out loud.)
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (c 63 BC- 12 BC) was Emperor Augustus’s right-hand man from their shared schooldays. If he is remembered for anything, it’s for building the Pantheon, the most-visited site in Italy.
Robert Harris pays him his full due in a novel that brings one of the greatest Romans out of the shadows.
All these gripping pieces are in the latest issue. And below are four more articles in full. Enjoy!
