Will Wyatt writes: Dennis Barker, in his obituary of Robert Robinson (15 August), rightly commends Robinson's refusal to do advertisements. "If my opinions are for sale, they are worthless as opinions" was how he would put it. "They ring me up and ask me to do an advertisement and I say, 'Why do you ask me?' They say, 'Aah, because you are the sort of person who doesn't do advertisements.' Then I say, 'But if I say I will, then I am the sort who does and you don't want me.'"
I only twice saw Bob almost at a loss for words. The first was when we were about to film an interview with PG Wodehouse. We set up in the garden of the great man's home and waited for him and his wife to emerge after watching their favourite soap opera. When they came out, Bob extended his hand, but before he could speak, Wodehouse said, "Oh, I did enjoy that detective story of yours. It was jolly good." Bob, taken aback, flattered and pleased, could only manage "Thank you, Sir."
The second was when we were filming in America and Bob volunteered that he might do an opening piece on horseback. "Do you ride?" I asked. "Occasionally, in Richmond Park," he replied airily. I spent the evening seeking a suitable mount at nearby ranches. "Did you find one?" he asked on my return. "Yes, he will be brought over in the morning." "What is he called?" asked Bob. "Bullet," I replied truthfully. Bob went quiet.
Pam Skinner writes: The columns of certain journalists stay in your mind, sometimes for life. For me, one such is Robert Robinson's Aboard the Raft (published in Inside Robert Robinson in 1965). His intelligence, compassion and social awareness still shine.
He writes about a secondary school headmaster, dedicated to young people of all abilities and backgrounds: "Outside in the world the little meritocrats, those natural survivors, were climbing ... into dinghies, leaving the rest to make do with rafts. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that there were more people on the rafts than in the dinghies. He ... knew that the quality of all our living ? as distinct from our mere prosperity ? depended on them."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/aug/17/robert-robinson-obituary-letters
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