Unbearable sadness

“The death of Frances Gall, the French singer who won the 1965 Eurovision song contest, reminds me that she, like many of her musical countrywomen such as Edith Piaff, Françoise Hardy, Dalida (Iolanda Gigliotte), lived a life of almost unbearable sadness, reflecting the melancholy of their songs,” says a St Andrews reader.

“In contrast most of the American girls who sang of heartbreak and loss had extremely happy private lives. Brenda Lee is one that comes to mind.

“She took Britain by storm in 1963 with the haunting “Losing you” which remains for men of my age (75) one of the best memories of the pre-Beatles era.” alker. In the summer of 1917 two officers, both of them poets, met at Craiglockhart War Hospital for Officers, the building that is now Edinburgh Napier University Business School.

Wilfred Owen was recovering from shell-shock and Siegfried Sassoon had been sent to Craiglockhart by a medical board having publicly criticised the conduct of the war. Both men became friends and contributed to the hospital magazine, The Hydra, while they underwent treatment. The few months that they spent at Craiglockhart were a productive period for both men.

Catherine Walker is the curator of the War Poets Collection which was established in 1988 and which illustrates the lives of Owen, Sassoon, Robert Graves (who visited his friend Sassoon and met Owen at Craiglockhart).

She will explore the collection and the lives of the war poets represented.

The meeting will be held in the Glasite Hall, King Street, Dundee DD1 2JB and is open to all with an interest in the First World War not just to WFA members. Further details can be obtained from Mike Taylor at 01821 650292 or from the branch web page http://www. wfatayside.co.uk which also has details of the future programme.