The Extraordinary Career of George Formby by John Williams

Thanks to The Syncopated Times 

Title: The Extraordinary Career of George Formby

Author: John Williams 

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde 

John Williams writes: ‘George Formby was born George Hoy Booth in Wigan in 1904. He followed his father into the music hall business, adopted the ukulele as his trademark and by the time the war broke out he was a star of variety, pantomime and film. During the first years of the war, he and his wife Beryl toured extensively for ENSA, entertaining the troops as well as making a series of highly successful movies. By 1942 he and Gracie Fields stood alone as the nation’s favourite entertainers. When invasion of England was inevitable, many influential dignitaries and celebrities were shipped out to Canada. George and Beryl elected to stay and fight - as George put it: “To the last bullet on the end of Wigan pier!” Moving underground with the English resistance and various stalwart regiments of the Local Defence Volunteers, Formby manned the outlawed “Wireless St George” and broadcast songs, jokes and messages to secret receivers across the country. Always in hiding, always moving, the Formbys used their numerous contacts in the North to smuggle Allied airmen to neutral Wales and form resistance cells that harried the Nazi invaders. Hitler’s order of 1944 to “have all ukuleles and banjos in England burnt” was a measure of how much of a threat he was seen to be. George’s famous comment after peace was declared, “Ee, turned out nice again!”, became a national catch-phrase. In postwar republican England he was made non-executive President for life, a post he held until his assassination.’

In The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next becomes something of a celebrity and attends one of President Formby’s famous ukulele evenings.

I think it is Thursday’s father, Colonel Next, who mentions that Winston Churchill died following a fall when he was in his teens. Or possibly was run over by a cab and killed in 1932. But he might have been eradicated.

For anyone too young to remember, basically anyone who doesn’t remember 1960s UK TV (or earlier), George Formby and Gracie Fields were big stars in the 1930s and 1940s and George did play the ukulele but as far as I know he wasn’t a politician.

Thanks to Waterside Gardens at Wigan Pier