Yorkshire’s starring role
QUESTION Did Alfred Hitchcock name the characters Thwaite, Sedbusk and Aysgarth in the film Suspicion after Yorkshire towns?
Alfred HitcHcock’s suspicion is a 1941 romantic thriller starring cary Grant as playboy Johnnie Aysgarth and Joan fontaine as lina Mclaidlaw, a part for which she won the best actress oscar.
it was not Hitchcock who chose the Yorkshire place names of Aysgarth, Newsham, Melbeck, sedbusk, thwaite and Wetherby for some of the characters, though doubtless they would have amused him. these names appeared in the 1932 novel Before the fact, which was adapted into the film.
the book was written by Anthony Berkeley cox, using the pen name francis iles. He also wrote under the names Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts, which shows his fascination with curious monikers.
A recurring detective in cox’s novels was roger sheringham, named after the east-coast resort. the writer co-founded the detection club in 1930, whose members included dorothy l. sayers and G. k. chesterton. Perhaps due to his aliases, cox never became as well-known as his fellow crime writers.
His best-known work was 1931’s intriguing Malice Aforethought, adapted for tV in 1979 with Hywel Bennett as edmund Bickleigh, named after another Yorkshire area.
Kevin J. Last, Hinton St George, Somerset.
QUESTION Where was the first Tarmac road?
iN 1901, Nottinghamshire’s county surveyor edgar Purnell Hooley was surprised when he came across a smooth stretch of road close to an ironworks in denby, derbyshire.
He discovered that a barrel of tar had split open and workmen had poured over waste slag from the nearby furnaces to cover up the mess.
this resurfacing had solidified the road and there were no ruts or dust. He immediately saw its potential.
Within a year, he had patented the process of heating tar, combining it with slag and then breaking stones into the mixture to form a smooth road surface. A five-mile stretch of Nottingham’s radcliffe road became the world’s first tarmac roadway.
the following year, Hooley formed tar Macadam syndicate ltd, named in honour of the 19th-century Ayr-born civil engineer John McAdam, and registered tarmac as a trademark.
the company was bought out by Wolverhampton MP sir Alfred Hickman in 1905, who owned a ironworks that produced large quantities of waste slag. Under Hickman, tarmac became an international success.
Jack Bully, Mansfield, Notts.
QUESTION In the 1920s, did the League of Nations suggest that Uganda should be a Jewish state?
tHe Uganda Proposal was a plan to site a Jewish state in east Africa. it was put forward by Joseph chamberlain, secretary of state for the colonies.
the name was a misnomer: the proposal was for land in a fertile plateau in Uasin Gishu (then Guas’ Ngishu) in British east Africa (modern-day kenya).
in the early days of the Zionist movement, there was argument over whether the Jewish state should be in Palestine or be sited wherever possible.
Pogroms against east european Jews strengthened the view that they needed a territory of their own, wherever it may be. those in favour of this view founded the Jewish territorial organisation.
theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, met chamberlain in october 1902 and proposed a temporary Jewish settlement in cyprus or el Arish in sinai, egypt. they were close to
Palestine and under British control. chamberlain rejected the suggestions because of internal opposition, and later offered a counter proposal: a Jewish state in Guas’ Ngishu.
Herzl sent swiss scholar Alfred kaiser; engineer Nahum Wilbush, who came from Palestine; and explorer Alfred st Hill Gibbons to investigate the proposal. the latter proposed an experimental settlement, but kaiser and Wilbush were firmly against it.
the matter was debated at the Zionist congress in 1905 after Herzl’s death the previous year. opponents of the African plan played up Wilbush’s report and downplayed Gibbons’s view. the congress rejected the Uganda Proposal and reaffirmed its commitment to a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Richard Cohn, London E11.
QUESTION Was there an Ashes series Down Under when the England bowlers weren’t awarded any LBW decisions?
tHe previous answer about the 1970/71 england tour of Australia put me in mind of an amusing story relating to one of england’s greatest fast bowlers.
fred trueman was known for his sardonic Yorkshire wit as much as his demon bowling.
on one tour down Under in the 1960s, england were playing a warm-up game against a local side when fred came on to bowl. knowing the batsman was, shall we say, not quite test standard, fred took half his full test run-up and, bowling at half pace, caught the batsman plumb lBW. ‘Howzat!’ shouted fred confidently. ‘Not out,’ said the umpire. somewhat frustrated, fred went back three-quarters of his test run-up and bowled at three-quarter pace, again catching the batsman in front for lBW.
‘Howzat!’ shouted fred again, even more confidently. ‘Not out,’ said the umpire again. Now riled, fred, who wasn’t known as ‘fiery’ for no reason, went back to his full test run-up, steamed in and bowled full pace, skittling the batsman’s wicket across the pitch.
turning to the umpire, he said calmly: ‘Nearly had him that time.’ Terry Kelly, Widnes, Cheshire. n IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.
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