At my age I must be mad
"At my age I must be mad." And what precisely is his age? "I don't tell anyone - my doctor knows." I imagine Parsons is in his late sixties but he's wearing well.For many Parsons is and always will be the former host of Sale of the Century - "from Norwich". An extremely glamorous and thoroughly charming fiftysomething, she is the measured calm to his highly strung agitation. "Darling, how do I like my kippers?" he fusses while she serenely reads the morning paper.This is either his seventh or eight panto. With only five hours to go before the opening night Widow Twankey is so hot and bothered he is more Widow Cranky "Where's my dresser?" he snaps, pulling off his curly wig. The following morning the man eating breakfast in the dining room of one of Bath's genteel hotels is an altogether more familiar sight.
Minus his panto dame costume this is the Nicholas Parsons we've come to expect. Dapper and immaculately turned out in blazer, spotted cravat and flannel trousers, his humour has substantially improved.Nevertheless he exudes a surprisingly nervy energy, probably, one suspects, only kept in check by his wife, Annie. Of its 30,000 inhabitants, it is believed one Monsieur Cyparis, who had been imprisoned for drunkenness when Mt Pele blew, was the only survivor.Mike Higgins. At an age when most `all-round entertainers' are winding down on the golf course, the dapper Nicholas Parsons is riding the wave of his new cult status. Janie Lawrence meets his latest incarnation, Widow Twankey. Backstage at the Bath Theatre Royal there is pandemonium. The Boers agreed to accept British colonial rule with the promise of self-government later.Martinique, on the other hand, was forced to deal with the decimation of its capital's population when St Pierre was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pele. The sixty-year-old king had undergone a high-risk appendectomy in June, delaying the Coronation and giving rise to doubts about his longevity.The end of May also saw British victory in the Boer War.
One of late Victorian Britain's most brilliant young men, Curzon became Viceroy of India at the age of 39, but his American wife paid for his success, succumbing to the sub-continent's harsh climate. 1902 brought some hope for endangered species, however. In America, the game laws which aimed to save the 500 remaining buffalo of the Great Plains' original 60 million population had produced two herds of over a thousand head, one in Yellowstone Park and one in Canada.Marconi sent his first transatlantic telegraph message in December to a suitably worthy addressee: King Edward VII, who himself was lucky to be alive at the end of the year. However, mindful of Jack Straw's problems, I am careful not to set the baby a bad example These days, a long, hot bath must suffice. And then I return to work until another night.Next week: partying with baby while talking existentialism. Three down and 95 to go. Wednesday's photograph of Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, and his wife with their trophy kill takes The Independent's "98 for 98" series on to 1902.
As part of "Photo 98 - The Year of Photography and Electronic Image", The Independent has been given exclusive access to the Hulton Getty Picture Library to celebrate every year from 1900 to 1998 with a photograph that encapsulates the spirit of the age. A typical Raj scene, the photograph above (taken in April near Hyderabad) bears witness to a favourite colonial pastime. Because no matter how much you cover yourself, the freezing cold (or in this case, the cry) still seeps in and wakes you up. And next morning, though you may not be tired, provided you took to your concrete bed early enough, you are discombobulated.