22nd April 1956: Tea with Vaughan Williams
Sixty years ago today Simona first met Vaughan Williams. Yes, she had seen him before that date, but only "a shining white head in concert halls"; this was her first real encounter with the composer, who was subsequently to become a close friend and collaborator. I found her account of their meeting among the papers associated with the book. My father thinks it may have previously been published by the Vaughan Williams society, but we don't have any evidence one way or another, and therefore no certainty. So this may be its premier!
Having had her "unlikely opus" accepted for publication by Macmillan, Simona was then advised that she inform Vaughan Williams of its existence. An apparently self-deprecatory letter of introduction was sent, in which she mentioned their mutual friend Jill Balcon, which received an immediate response from Ursula Vaughan Williams asking for a copy of the manuscript. Despite his usual rule to never read anything about him before publication "he had decided to bend this a trifle in view of [her] confessed lack of technical knowledge to rescue from gross errors of fact".
In VW's own hand he sent his opinion: "of course there is a lot I disagree with, but you put your own point of view most forcibly, and with an intimate knowledge of my music. In fact you know it better than I do myself!" Below this, from Ursula, was an invitation to tea.
"My dear, you know my hymn books."
And so, on this April afternoon, a nervous Simona found herself on the doorstep of Hanover Terrace. She was greeted with "my dear, you know my hymn books", a fact that had apparently pleased him more than her writing on any of his other works, and they were "in a moment...talking as if we had known each other for years". Tea soon became sherry and a friendship with both Ralph and Ursula was forged. That they got on so well undoubtedly led to VW's offer that Simona join the rehearsals for the 8th symphony, to be premiered in Manchester in may, to ensure she could add this newest of his works to her book prior to publication. So tea ended with another meeting scheduled just 10 days later.
A brief summary of the growing friendship with the couple over the following two years follows, described as "the time of my life", and the ultimate collaboration on The First Nowell before ending with Simona hearing the news of VW's death. This piece provides what I had expected to find in Simona's book - an insight into Vaughan Williams the man - and it counters much of what you would (and indeed Simona had) assumed about him from his music. The composer of so many hymns was an agnostic and despite being best known for conjuring the English idyll through his music, he remained a Londoner at heart who couldn't "reliably tell a sparrow from a thrush or remember the names of wild flowers". And he was clearly, even at 84, a ladies' man who checked with Jill whether Simona wore "flat heels and baggy tweed skirts, or can we ask her to tea?".
I would completely share Simona's terror if I were to meet one of my idols - even meeting a favourite author at a book signing makes me nervous, afraid I might say something that sounds either ignorant or fawning. But Ican scarcely imagine the joy it must have given her to have been invited and welcomed into the world of somebody she so admired, especially when she had written a book about him. He never shared his opinion on the book, but I can't believe it was anything other than favourable, or sixty years ago, at just this time, Simona would not be ringing that bell in Hanover square and about to begin the most wonderful two years of her life.