Londoner's Diary: The woman who broke the news of WW2

Pioneering: Clare Hollingworth
Ted Aljibe - Getty
9 October 2015

Tomorrow marks the 104th birthday of Clare Hollingworth, renowned war correspondent and tough cookie. No cake and candles for her, however: instead, a long list of her peers are paying tribute to a woman who they say is both formidable and frightening.

“It was one of my first assignments and I’d been sent to East Pakistan,” John Humphrys recalls. “I’d never met her before. She was certainly scary. She didn’t suffer fools gladly. She didn’t show any sympathy to my 20-year-old naivety. We were waiting for something to happen and she just vanished. Wherever the front line was, she’d be on it. There was a certain amount of jealousy as she came back with a story that we all wished we had. She used to have contacts everywhere, from generals to prime ministers.”

Humphrys’ words come as a campaign, launching today, publicises a biography of her work, Of Fortunes and War. As well as shedding light on her notorious “little black book” (George Bush Jr was a favourite contact) it details how Hollingworth was the first journalist to report the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, efficiently sending the news of Germany’s invasion of Poland to the Daily Telegraph before even the Polish government had been alerted.

Less intimidated by her reputation as a “pioneer”, BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson also added his voice to the “#celebrateClare” campaign, referring to her interviews with the Shah of Iran. “Who did the first interview with the Shah of Iran? Clare Hollingworth. Who did the last interview all those years - 30-40 - years later, after he fell? Clare Hollingworth. And she was the only person he wanted to speak to. And that’s really the measure of the woman.”

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He might have attended both Oxford and Cambridge universities but last night Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe told The Londoner that having rowed himself, when it comes to the Boat Race he is a steadfast supporter of the dark blues. “My seat was at the front of the boat next to the cox”, he explained. “It’s the worst seat in the boat because you’re responsible for leading everyone else. In a long race, that means you have to just keep going!”

Protest fever spreads to the art world

First the Sloanes protested against Crossrail. Now outrage has moved to the US, with a movement protesting against ... Auguste Renoir. Uniting behind #renoirsucksatpainting”, the activists say the Impressionist was talentless, undeserving of his popularity. On Monday the anti-Renoirists picketed Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, demanding the gallery remove his work. It gets better: holding signs declaring “God Hates Renoir” and “Treacle Harms Society”, they chanted “Put some fingers on those hands! Give us work by Paul Gauguin!” What a slogan. If the “no privatisation” protesters at the National Gallery had come up with that, Nicholas Penny would’ve given in straight away.

Miserables? Not on this evidence

Uncharacteristically smiling faces at the Queen’s Theatre last night, as Les Misérables marked 30 years on the West End with a special gala performance. Producer Cameron Mackintosh, centre, was joined by Frances Ruffelle, above left, who created the role of Eponine, while original Fantine Patti LuPone, above right, has also thankfully not been scared away by recent events. Earlier this year she confiscated a phone from an audience member mid-performance and was left fuming. “I am so defeated by this issue that I question whether I want to work on stage any more,” she said. “Now I’m putting battle gear on over my costume to marshal the audience as well as perform.”

Suffragette inspires the sisterhood

Mayfair rung with the sound of solidarity last night as Care International held a screening of Suffragette. The film features Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst, and the pioneer’s great-granddaughter Helen Pankhurst, pictured with her daughter Laura and singer Annie Lennox, was on hand to launch the organisation’s new Walk In Her Shoes campaign.

Laura Pankhurst, Annie Lennox and Helen Pankhurst (image: Julie Edwards/Care International)
Julie Edwards: Care International

“We can talk until we’re blue in the face but we must have action, and that is what we need,” Lennox said at the screening at the May Fair Hotel, also attended by Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan and former MP Emily Thornberry. “I feel ashamed when I see that people step away from the word ‘feminism,’ because they’re so confused about what it means. I’m ashamed. ‘I’m not a feminist’? OK. And people who think twerking is feminist? It isn’t. It really isn’t.”

“We need truth, we need honesty, we need cohesion. Because at the moment in the media there’s a lot of talk about sexuality and celebrity. “And I’m so frustrated, because you watch a film like this and it conveys the truth, and yet where are we now, and where are we in terms of the developing world? We are so far back, we’re in the Middle Ages and it absolutely enrages me.”

***

Speaking about #PigGate at Cheltenham Literature Festival, Isabel Oakeshott dismissed the idea that something published in a book need actually be true. “Would I have got that story into The Sunday Times? I reckon it probably could have been a diary story, expressed much more euphemistically.” Not sure what you mean. We only print Miriam González Durántez’s top recipes.

A kiss-off full of Grace

A lesson from Grace Jones, right, in how to avoid irritating fans next time you’re down the corner shop (a problem The Londoner faces daily). Snidely funny newsletter Popbitch reports on the doyenne of divadom’s recent trip to the seaside to see an actress pal. Jones, it says, nipped into the Co-op to buy some cigarettes and was spotted by a fan. “Excuse me,” the fan asked, “but aren’t you Grace Jones?”

A fair assumption, one might think. Jones isn’t known for blending into the background. But sometimes a girl just wants to buy her fags without gurning for a selfie. “Darling,” she replied, “if I was, do you think I would be shopping here?” The fan slunk away. Then again, who could have delivered such a fine one-liner as Grace?

Passion of the day: to Rod Stewart, who loves his model train sets so much that he books them a separate hotel room while on tour. Rock and roll.

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