Humphrey Lyttelton & Liath Hollins

Some of you will have heard about the recent death of one of the
UK’s best known jazzmen - Humphrey Lyttelton. He was 86.

He was also well known as the presenter of the long-running BBC
Radio programme: “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue", which was I thought
was very funny, though the humour was often at schoolboy level.

If you’ve never heard of this programme, the idea is to give a
bunch of comedians some silly things to do. It's an antidote to
all those dull literary / general knowledge quiz programmes.

I remember listening to the programmes during my lunch breaks
when I was a junior hospital doctor (when I had a less busy job
at a peripheral hospital), way back in the 197Os. I never really
understood what one of their games was all about: “Mornington
Crescent”, until I read this article on the programme a few
minutes ago. I mention all this as Humph himself was a brilliant
comedian ... he had a very dry sense of humour.

In a recent obit column in The Times, I read this joke he made
on a radio programme about 20 years ago. It was his birthday,
and the presenter, Terence Brady, asked him if he had any special
messages for someone. He said yes … for his son. Would he please
come and remove his clutter from his father’s garage?

About a fifth of our loft is taken up with the clutter of two of
our daughters. The rest of the clutter is mine. :)

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While on the subject of talented musicians, here is a photo of
one of my younger relatives, Liath Hollins.



She plays the tradtional harp at weddings and other special occasions,
and teaches how to play it also. She has grade 8 piano too, which she
teaches.

Her other part-time activities include teaching stage-fighting at
three drama schools in the Midlands and in Herts too ... so she's an
expert at throwing a fake punch, clouting someone with a staff and
fighting with a broadsword ~ brilliant stuff to watch. She's also
very much into studying the old Celtic way of life (British & Welsh)
and can speak a bit of Welsh. How's that for you, boy-oh.

Liath (pronounced the same as Lear) has got her own music website.

Here's a link to her My Space site where you can hear her playing.

Have a listen to her singing "Fairy Host", which is a whole music
track from her CD. I can imagine sitting at a medieval banquet,
feasting on meats and mead, while listening to her.