Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I have just come across an internet item with Prince Charles reading a poem of Bernard Levin (OB) for National Poetry Day, 2019. It’s clever, showing how very, very greatly Shakespeare influenced everyday speech in ways that most of us do not appreciate.

The reading (3 min) is at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2366800083537183
The text is at https://allpoetry.com/column/14752281-P ... y-Hojadaro

Levin was described by The Times (admittedly his long-time employer) as “the most famous journalist of his day”. In OB circles we don’t hear much about him, possibly because he chose to distance himself from CH. Does anyone know why?

"Does anyone know why?"
I came after Levin's time, but I was slightly junior to one of the actors who went on to be in the cast of Levin's 'Oh Calcutta' (and Hair).
In our day CH (pre 1960ish) the ethos espoused by the school and its active alumni was very very distanced from the fringe arts cultures that became mainstream in the ensuing decades.
The past was a different country that some of us never wanted to revisit...

ZeroDeConduite wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 10:35 am I came after Levin's time, but I was slightly junior to one of the actors who went on to be in the cast of Levin's 'Oh Calcutta' (and Hair).

I feel there may be a mix-up here. The man behind Oh! Calcutta! was surely Kenneth Tynan. I've never heard Levin mentioned in connection with it, though of course he may have reviewed it.

AStaverton wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:55 am In OB circles we don’t hear much about him, possibly because he chose to distance himself from CH.

Levin certainly refused to join the CH Club - ostensibly on the grounds that he was ‘not the clubbable type’ - but he didn’t cold-shoulder CH entirely. According to his obituary in The Blue (Summer 2004) he ‘returned to CH to judge a debating contest, contributed an affectionate obituary of Roy Macklin (Staff 26-46) to The Blue and in his book Enthusiasms wrote in detail about his schooldays, recalling the pleasures of Chapel services and the joy of studying great literature in the dormitory at first light.’