Speccie Hotchpotch by 22 August
 

Who was it amongst you who was also a fan of the great N.F. Simpson? The only problem is that critics always sound that way. Grinding of teeth.

2761: Hotchpotch V. gallimaufry
At the end of his play 'A Resounding Tinkle' N.F. Simpson provides a brilliant parody of a BBC radio programme in which critics solemnly discuss whether the play they have just seen is a ‘hotchpotch’ or a ‘gallimaufry’. You are invited to provide an example of critics debating a trivial point in an absurd way (150 words maximum). Please email entries, wherever possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 22 August.

Simpson fan
 

Might have been me. I was amazed - he only died recently (Last year? this year? I know it was in the South-West, which was a nuisance as I lived there for years & could have paid my respects). He wrote nothing for ages, but he did write a very good Holmes & Watson spoof in about 1972. Holmes was John Cleese, Watson was Willie Rushton. They were seen crossing a busy road.

Holmes: What year is it, Watson?
Watson: 1972
Holmes (grimly): We may well be too late.

He also wrote a novel, Harry Bleachbaker, which nobody I've ever met seems to have read.

Oh, I hope I can find something to just cut-and-paste. Hee-hee.

“We’re here tonight to take a fresh look at Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Endgame’. Would you care to give us your thoughts, Basil?”

“Certainly, Melvyn. I have to say that this play has dated in ways that I find disquieting. I mean, here we have two characters living in dustbins, but it seems that they are, as it were, generic dustbins, quite undifferentiated as to content. Today, we would expect to find the dustbins separated by category - newspapers, glass, kitchen refuse, and so on. Indeed, I think you will find that councils and private collection agencies insist on it. So the message that is being transmitted here is, I’m afraid, ecologically very unsound. These people are evidently filling their dustbins with anything that comes to hand, with no thought for the environment or global warming. At the very least, they ought to be living in dustbins marked ‘Human Waste’.”

Oddly, I entered the Speccie 'Astrological' comp with a piece based on NF Simpson - and here he is serving as springboard for this weeks comp.

Brian, I love your piece on Endgame