An Evening with Leslie Thomas

An Evening  of anecdotes shared with  Leslie Thomas was designed by Leslie Thomas and performed at the Turner Sims Concert Hall on 20th November, 1994

Leslie Thomas is one of Britains most popular writers; a best selling novelist, a travel writer and a television and radio personality. Born in 1931 in Barry, Glamorgan of a seafaring family, he found himself, at the age of 12, in an orphanage following his father’s drowning in the South Atlantic during a U-boat attack on a wartime convoy. Within six months his mother also died. From Dr. Barnardo’s in Kingsbridge, Devon he was subsequently sent to their home in Kingston-Upon-Thames. At 16 he attended College to learn Shorthand and Typing; and at 17 got his first job (at first unpaid) with the Walthamstow Guardian. Called up at 18 into the Royal Army Pay Corps, he was posted in January 1950 to Singapore. During this time he continued to submit articles to U.K newspapers - and letters advising them of their good fortune that he would be. available to work for them when he was demobbed! The only offer came from the ‘Willesden Citizen’ where he worked for 21 years, followed by a time as sub editor at the Exchange Telegraph in the City. His goal was achieved when he was appointed a reporter on the London ‘Evening News’. As part of Fleet Street’s ‘Flying Circus’ he visited many parts of the world, covering Royal visits, the Eichman trial, Ian Smith’s UDI in Rhodesia and Harold Wilson in the Scilly Isles. His first book was published in 1963.

For The Maskers

The Company in Order of Speaking

Programme

1.         Virgin Soldiers soundtrack

2.         This time next week - Leslie Thomas

3.         Stopping by Woods - Robert Frost

4.         The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

5.         Grantchester - Rupert Brook

6.         18th Variation - Sergei Rachmaninov

7.         The Cockney Amorist - John Betjeman

8.         From the Diaries of Francis Kilvert (1870)

9.         The Chain Letter

10.       The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

11.       What’s that tune?

INTERVAL

12.       You are in Bear Country

13.       Sister Anna, The Juggling Nun - P.R Scott

14.       Funeral Blues & If I Could Tell You - W.H Auden

15.       The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

16.       Dusk’ - Armstrong Gibbs

17.       Running Away - Leslie Thomas

18.       Audience Open Forum

19.       Chorale From Cantata 14 7 - J.S Bach

20.       Harrow on the Hill - John Betjeman

21.       Letter to Mrs Betjeman

22.       Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas