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The question “What does the name Malcolm Sargent mean to you?” is generally answered these days with a curt “Buttonholes” This biography is no exception. Sargent’s sartorial programme is outlined: “bath (with Hughie the budgerigar)… Harrow jacket with formal striped trousers or Hogg and Johnstone pinstripe.. black alpaca for rehearsing.. smoking jacket.. morning coat… red carnation restored to buttonhole.” The usual photographs are tendered: Sir Malcolm spatted and spatless, Sir Malcolm with carnation and without. In one, the great conductor shoots shirt-cuffs fully a metre long.Sargent’s was a style not admired by everybody. Sir Harold Nicolson was delighted that he “never looked as smart as Malcolm Sargent”, though both frequented the best tailors. Sir Thomas Beecham described Herbert von Karajan – another musical showman, and a Nazi – as “a kind of musical Malcolm Sargent”.

And the funniest, or most risible, lines in this book are those of a landowner friend who remembers the conductor being not “very good at country clothes” and recalls a distinctly non-U episode with a pheasant in Suffolk.
Tunes of Glory is the story of “a boy without privilege” who triumphed over British snobbery (his own and that of other people) to dominate the musical life of his nation. Born to “the upper working class”, Sargent soon emerges from the “shadow of Stamford’s twin gas towers”, takes piano lessons, ascends the organ loft, founds the Melton Mowbray Operatic Society and conducts Impressions of a Windy Day in London. Sargent’s tone-poem was inspired by a day’s golf with his GP in Cromer, Norfolk. Ultimately, Sargent (BMus, DMus and Arco) is recognised as “Britain’s Toscanini” and gets to star on BBC radio’s The Brains Trust.Richard Aldous offers no Marxist vision of his subject. Could there be a more explosive coupling, we are encouraged to marvel, than Sargent’s innate talent with “England’s fluid society possessed of an open ?te to which boys of humble origin might aspire”? The local aristocracy, the Cecils of Burghley, are held up, with the Church of England, as an “enabling organisation” crucial for the ambitious young musician.And then personality does the rest. If Sargent spotted a door of opportunity ajar, he “barged his way through”.

On the other side might lie Diana Bowes-Lyon, Countess Fitzwilliam or Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent: high-born women only too happy to set sartorial scruple aside in the interests of passion with “Flash Harry”. When Sargent was put in charge of the Proms, it was Edwina Mountbatten who furnished his flat overlooking the Albert Hall and shared his bed.So what went wrong? Sargent did the things great conductors are supposed to do: champion the contemporary (Stravinsky, Bartok, Britten, Shostakovich, Kodaly), bring music to the common people and raise provincial orchestras to greatness (Liverpool Philharmonic, in particular). But ungenerous comments about sacked musicians earned the hatred of players who had loved him; a “reputation”, libidinous and otherwise, dogged him; and times changed.Modernists took over at the BBC, and Sargent’s generously intentioned programme of populism was reversed. What kind of music might the nation expect from the new Third Programme? “What they will like tomorrow,” came the controller’s answer, ominously for Sargent.The animus continues, in spite of a recorded legacy of sometimes the highest quality, including dramatic Handel, famous Elgar and a remarkable set of Beethoven concertos with Schnabel.

Thirty years after his death, in 1997, one prominent critic horse-whipped Sargent as “bargain-basement”, a “star musical propagandist, not a great conductor”.What great conductor is not also a “star musical propagandist”? And is musical propaganda so different from conducting? A discussion of these judgements might have formed the underlying theme of this otherwise meticulously orchestrated biography.. Britain’s motorway service stations are few and far between and still offer poor food at high prices, the AA says in its latest assessment. Britain’s motorway service stations are few and far between and still offer poor food at high prices, the AA says in its latest assessment.
Only Belgium and Holland rated lower for quality among the nine countries tested for the AA study. Out of the 10 British service areas surveyed, not one was rated “good”; only three achieved an “acceptable” rating and the rest were deemed to be “poor”.France was considered to offer the best facilities, achieving 10 “good” verdicts, two “acceptables” and just one “poor”. Germany was runner-up and Austria third in the survey.British service areas were praised for their layouts as well as the range of merchandise available.

They were also rated highly for access for disabled people and the fact that they operate 24 hours a day.The AA’s policy director, John Dawson, said food quality, service and value for money were the most important factors to customers and that Britain fared badly on those. “When taking a break from the most congested roads in Europe, the UK driver is given poor-quality service areas,” he said.* Backseat car passengers who do not wear a seat belt are three times more likely to suffer death or serious injury than those who do – and yet 40 per cent of adults refuse to wear them, a report by the motor insurer Direct Line says.. The two train companies at the heart of the Paddington and Southall disasters were among 10 operators warned yesterday that they could face legal action if they fail to improve safety. The two train companies at the heart of the Paddington and Southall disasters were among 10 operators warned yesterday that they could face legal action if they fail to improve safety.
Thames Trains and First Great Western were ordered to tighten procedures for preventing trains passing red lights – the cause of both tragedies, in which 38 lost their lives.As the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) rail inspectors began to enforce a far tougher regulatory regime, it was revealed that a Connex South Eastern commuter service had driven through a red signal, coming within seconds of a head-on crash.The other eight train operating companies on the HSE’s hit list yesterday were the Sea Containers flagship subsidiary Great North Eastern Railways; GB Railway’s Anglia franchise; Arriva’s Merseyside train operation; the First Group’s other train company, Great Eastern, and three National Express franchises: Cardiff Railway, Scotrail and Wales and West.The operation now run by Connex South Central – a sister company to Connex South East and due to be taken over by Go-Ahead’s Thames Trains – was also singled out for criticism.