His fellow Beatle John Lennon may famously have returned his MBE, but Sir Paul McCartney was a staunch monarchist even in his childhood, a newly discovered schoolboy essay has shown.
The work, unseen in public for 56 years and thought to be his earliest surviving creative effort, was written by McCartney when aged 10 to celebrate the coronation in 1953 and won him a book token presented by the lord mayor of Liverpool.
The 300-word essay, which praises “our lovely young Queen”, was written when McCartney was at Joseph Williams junior school in Belle Vale, Liverpool, and was then handed over to the local Speke library for submission. “I’m not surprised that it was pro-royalist, bearing in mind attitudes of the time and because his father, James, was a royalist,” said Kevin Roache, who has just unearthed the essay in the library archives where he works. He is also writing a book on the McCartney family.
McCartney, who passed the 11-plus and excelled in English and art at his grammar school, Liverpool Institute, shows a good turn of phrase and neat writing. Near the start he refers to the coronation of William the Conqueror nine centuries earlier, when “senseless Saxon folk” gathered at Westminster Abbey cheering their Norman king. “Very Liverpool to call them ‘folk’,” said Roache.
He then compares that coronation with the new Queen’s by writing that “no rioting nor killing will take place because present day royalty rules with affection rather than force”.
McCartney, whose father was a cotton salesman and mother Mary a midwife, described the crowds expected outside Buckingham Palace and how children in the capital were being given free seats by the roadside or in grandstands.
He also writes about “souveniers [sic] ... for any tourists who come to see this marvellous spectacle”, the spelling mistake showing perhaps that neither his parents nor his teacher helped with the essay.
His teacher does, however, ring the grammatical error of using “But” at the start of two of McCartney’s sentences. The teacher may have been right, but the capital “Bs” are significant because they have the same twirly ends as those later used in the word “Beatles” on the group’s drum skin, which McCartney helped to design in 1962.
His essay goes on to describe a coronation cup with Elizabeth II on the front and Elizabeth I on the back. He ends by writing: “After all this bother, many people will agree with me that it was well worth it.”
The McCartney family went to the Central library for the prize-giving. The Victorian building is now seeking money for restoration. “I can just recall Paul being nervous and getting this book token from the mayor,” said his brother Mike.
McCartney and the three other Beatles received MBEs from the Queen in 1965, although Lennon gave his back in 1969 in protest at the British government’s policy on the Biafra war in Nigeria. In 1997 the Queen, McCartney’s childhood idol, finally knighted him.
source: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment