This is the story of Will and his two friends who sailed to England in 1967 to see the world. Aerogrammes. letters, diaries and postcards help to tell of their adventures in this A to Z.
“With a Little Help from My Friends” Beatles • 1967
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, Gonna try with a little help from my friends
14 Oaklands Road, Cricklewood, NW2, London 11/11/67
Down at one of my famous old writing spots, the Laundromat, catching up with my mail while the machine gets rid of the dirt. Received your letter and pleased to catch up on the news as it was overdue, but I suppose a letter equals two aerogrammes, so I’ll let you off this time (with a warning).
Last Friday we tripped down to White City Stadium to watch the Rugby League and cheered the Aussies on to victory in the 2nd test – yelled ourselves hoarse among all the Poms and it was a really exciting game. Only 20,000 people but this was a good crowd for London where the game is not played and receives very little publicity at all in the papers.
Went down to see “Sound of Music” the other night. Have you seen it? A great show and I must check out Salzburg, Austria when I get there next Spring or Summer for the scenes where it is filmed.
We saw ol’ Harold Wilson at the Rugby and he went round to their pub after as he is a keen league man. The word is they had all drowned quite a few chilled chunder drops. Wilson’s popularity on the national scene is at an all-time low. The economic position here is hopeless. As we tell the Poms, “The only chance you’ve got is to emigrate, mate”. Australia House is doing good business as winter approaches. The cartoon in the paper had Liz and Phillip opening Parliament with the speech “Owing to the present economic situation, my husband and I have decided to emigrate.” It’s their only chance!
14 Oaklands Road, Cricklewood, NW2 London 10/12/67
Hello! I think you owe me a letter, so you’d better hurry up and write. Life in the old Pom is pretty cool these days with heavy snow covering the streets, trees and cars. The whole of London looks quite different – even attractive, as the old grey and brown buildings are pleasantly white. It is still quite a novelty as when we woke on Friday morning it was snowing heavily, and the temperature was around 28º F outside! The last two days have been averaging 21° F all over Britain which is pretty cold. Gloves, coats, scarves are in!
The kids at school are having a picnic and snow fights in the playground are quite popular. London isn’t geared for cold weather like this, and everything is disrupted. I was one hour late for school on Friday and when I got there had to teach three classes for an hour and then all day because of late arrivals and absences it was very hectic. Also, it’s chilly in the flat and even though the gas heater is on full all night the room never gets really warm. They need central heating urgently. Would love a toboggan or skis for up in the park but have had good snowball fights anyway!
Because of the snow we didn’t get up to Swinton to see the Rugby but one of our mates is a TV technician, so he gave us a set, and we watched a live broadcast – a great game. Raper played a blinder. It was quite pleasant sitting in front of the fire watching them play in the snowstorm.
Keith is leaving for Canada on the 27th December. He is to teach at Port Alberni near Victoria, British Colombia on January 3rd. The pay is very good, and he reckons he’s seen all of Europe he wants to see. Now he’s planning on teaching there till July 1968. Phil will probably stay another month or so here and head for Canada too. We’ve still got another bloke staying with us and won’t have any trouble getting someone else in the flat.
Last Friday I saw the “X” certified French movie “Belle de Jour” which was good entertainment and very revealing as was completely uncensored. I took Michelle whose French was good enough to follow but I had to read the subtitles.
We spent quite a few hours the other Saturday afternoon drinking at “Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese” in Fleet Street with a journalist and a retired pilot who flew with Kingsford Smith and was in Sydney in 1929. It was an historic old pub which was rebuilt in 1667, the year after being destroyed in the Great Fire. They celebrated their 300-year anniversary the previous day. The waiters looked pretty dashing in all their period clobber.
Keith and Phil send their regards and Season’s Greetings. Hope you have a great Xmas with not too many hangovers. Have a DA for me will you please – what did it taste like? And what does sun look and feel like? I hear you’ve had some hot days. How’s the sailing? Hope all are healthy and well – my regards to everyone. I know – tell them I said Merry Xmas to them too.
14 Oaklands Road, Cricklewood, NW2 London 28/12/1967
Happy New Year! We had an enjoyable Xmas here with 6 crates of Fosters Australian Lager among the three of us (plus Scotch etc ). The girls invited us round for dinner so we had a great feast and swung right through until midnight. The round of parties was very pleasant, and I had two Xmas dinners at school. Bought a bottle of Porphyry Pearl for the staff to show them how good Aussie wine is, and it was much appreciated.
Extract from Diary
Merry Christmas! Weather cold, dark and rain drizzling down.
At 12 midday around to girls’ flat armed with record player, Beatles records, whiskey, sherry, Spanish sauterne, Raki and two dozen cans of beer. Had a great feast of duckling and all usual Christmas trimmings which the three girls cooked and swung all through the afternoon and night ending quite plastered about midnight. A pleasant day.
Unfortunately, it appears maxi skirts have a grip on now as more and more are appearing for the winter, but minis are predicted for the spring again, so I hope my memory is good enough to last.
Keith left for Port Alberni, British Colombia, Canada this morning at 10 am and should be there by now, ready to start teaching on January 3rd. Phil and I have still the same flat at the moment and think we might get a couple of birds in to share because they are tidier than blokes. Phil will stay a couple more months before heading off for Canada and I will be heading out for Europe again for about three months in April (by car, I hope)
My backpay of £70 stg came through last week as I am now qualified and actually have £20 more in the bank than I arrived with! Amazing.
Bill, a mate with a (new) car, just rang and wants to know if Phil and I (and two other mates) would like to go to Scotland for the New Year weekend and as Edinburgh is reckoned to be a really swinging town on New Year’s Eve with big celebrations, we will probably go. Should be fun.
Holt’s (Australian Prime Minister) disappearance was a terrible shock and tragedy. I have sent the newspapers of the next day by sea mail just so you can get an idea of the publicity it received over here.
Sounds as if you had some nice presents being handed out there at Xmas. We ended up with lots of cards and specially liked those with good ol’ Aussie on them. There have been some good shows on TV over the holiday break and we still have our free set and free record player. Bill is bringing round a colour set one night just so we can check it out here – what I’ve seen so far of colour is quite good. Still seeing many plays and shows as London is a good spot for these. Sir Alec Guiness tomorrow night, Juliet Prowse another, Gilbert and Sullivan, Royal Albert Hall, etc, etc
What does the sun look like? It’s usually dark by 3.30pm and some days we don’t even see a glimpse of it – wait till summer and I’m in Spain and Greece. Ah! Pleasant dreams.
The Curry Apple Orchard 