Alan Ashworth has an entertaining TCW piece on the enormous difference in talent to be found in Fleet Street, from the genuinely talented to overpaid numpties. We probably see the talented/numpty spectrum in all fields.
That Reminds Me: Heroes and villains of Fleet Street
I HAVE written previously about some of the wonderful and talented people I worked with in Fleet Street, including Gordon Greig, Lynda Lee-Potter, Nigel Dempster and Keith Waterhouse. Obviously, the Daily Mail also had its share of complete numpties.
One in particular comes to mind: a specialist writer who was the embodiment of the principle that the worse the journalist, the higher his opinion of himself. He used to turn in the most godawful rubbish which the long-suffering sub-editors had to translate into English. He would then send off cuttings of the results in the hope of winning whatever press awards might be going, yet he made it clear that he never had any time for subs. He was also a shameless freeloader, running a company Jaguar and once overheard boasting to a contact: ‘We journos are a high-maintenance breed.’ What a wally.
The whole piece is well worth reading. As a bonus it includes a section about Horlicks.
WHEN I were a lad, no café was complete without its Horlicks machine. This comprised a deep metal cup in which sweet malted milk powder was combined with hot water then whisked together by means of a long steel nozzle which aerated the mixture and provided a lovely frothy drink costing about sixpence (2½p), if memory serves.
You could make Horlicks at home by making a paste with the powder and water, topped up from the kettle or a pan of hot milk, but it wasn’t quite the same.
Nevertheless Horlicks, marketed as ‘the food drink of the night’, was a firm family favourite and was always produced in our house when one of us was struggling to get to sleep.
You could make Horlicks at home by making a paste with the powder and water, topped up from the kettle or a pan of hot milk, but it wasn’t quite the same.
Nevertheless Horlicks, marketed as ‘the food drink of the night’, was a firm family favourite and was always produced in our house when one of us was struggling to get to sleep.
6 comments:
Horlicks— a previous post brought back memories of Swanage as does this; the café at the east end of the promenade where road and shoreline went separate ways and the cliffs began to rise. Yes, Horlick from the café was different from that made at home, and not the same now as circa 1965.
We were an Ovaltine family. But at the swimming baths we children used to drink Bovril.
My wife and I had a spell as Horlicks fans. Currently we are great fans of Twinings hot chocolate which is some consolation for Twinings stopping selling Lapsang Souchong and selling a dismal substitute instead.
At breakfast I've drunk PG tips for ages but am currently making my way through a present, a tin of Fortnum and Mason's Strawberry Tea. Not bad at all.
At the swimming baths (a school activity) we used to drink hot Ribena and eat Oxo Crisps.
The food drink of the night? I’ve just been reading about the demon of the night … wonder if the two are connected.
djc - I remember the café at the east end of the promenade, although my memory of it only goes back as far as the mid 1980s. I seem to recall a cliff walk starting somewhere near there too.
dearieme - my wife used to drink Ovaltine but these days we mostly drink Earl Grey tea, camomile tea, coffee, my PG tips or just water, although at the moment I'm trying Tesco finest tea. We try new drinks every now and then but soon lose interest in most of them.
DJ - I vaguely remember Oxo Crisps as having a Marmite flavour. Never tried hot Ribena though.
James - could be - a late cheese snack is sometimes said to usher in night demons. Think I'll stick to dark chocolate.
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