ANGLOPHILE I guess that I am an Anglophile. I like most things British, from Eric Clapton, the Beatles, the late Joe Cocker, Dire Straits and the Rolling Stones, Mini Coopers, double-decker buses, and neighborhood pubs – and thanks to the British military, I developed a love of fish and chips. When I was working as a German linguist in Berlin, then the hottest spot in the Cold War. The U.S. and British shared an intelligence-gathering site atop Teufelsberg, a 400-meter-high mountain of rubble in the British sector of West Berlin. About midway through a swing shift, the “NAAFI wagon,” a rolling British PX snack bar, would make a stop at Teufelsberg and we’d rush out to buy an order of fish and chips. The fried cod and fried potatoes were greasy and were wrapped in newspaper pages. I’m not sure if the newsprint added something to the flavor, but I still can almost smell and taste the fish and chips after all these years. I love British television shows, especially comedies -- “The Vicar of Dibley” and “Fawlty Towers” and “Monty Python” are particular favorites – and dramas like “All Creatures Great and Small,” which was based on the series of books by the late veterinarian James Herriott. I don’t know the names of the actors who starred in “All Creatures,” but they were more than actors. Their performances were so natural, so unaffected that watching the show seems like having my good friends James, Siegfried and Tristan over for a visit. I also love British murder mysteries, which I find much more entertaining than the U.S. counterparts, with the possible exception of Tony Hillerman’s series featuring Navajo tribal policemen Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. There seems to be more development of the characters and less blood and gore in the British mysteries. My particular favorites are the Richard Jury mysteries, which feature Inspector Richard Jury of New Scotland Yard and his group of eccentric friends in Long Piddlington, and the series of books featuring Inspector Morse of the Thames Valley Police; Inspector Thomas Lynley of New Scotland Yard and Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh Police. The main character in each series has a partner: Jury has Sgt. Wiggins, whose favorite meal is beans on toast and who is addicted to illness and Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct mysteries, and Melrose Plant, who renounced his title; Morse has the patient Sgt. Lewis; Lynley has Sgt. (later demoted to Constable) Barbara Havers; and Rebus has Sgt. Siobhan Clarke. These books are so well-written that I often find myself forgetting about the murder and just enjoying the banter and bickering of the main characters. The Rebus books have been made into TV series, which haven’t made it to PBS stations in this part of the country, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the adaptations of the “Inspector Morse” and “Inspector Lynley” mysteries and other series, such as ”Foyle’s War,” “Hetty Wainthrop,” “Silent Witness,” “A Touch of Frost” and “Mid-Somer Murders.” While I really do like most things British, I am not too sure about beans on toast. P.S.: “Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?” was released in 1978 to generally bad reviews, including one that said: “British chefs need not worry.”
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:58:06 +0000
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