The Single End by McAndrew

Thanks to the Thinking Traveller

Title: The Single End

Author: McAndrew

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart 

Sadly we don’t have a first name for successful playwright Mr McAndrew. We know that his play, The Single End, has a character called Maggie, but don’t know anything else. Aspiring actress Lucy Waring (our heroine), was cast as the character Shirley in another, sadly unnamed, McAndrew play. Shirley has unlikely hysterics all over act two, and the rest of the play can’t have exactly gripped audiences as it closed after a short two month run.

Now out of work, Lucy goes to stay with her sister Phyllida in Corfu. Phyll is staying in a villa owned by her husband’s wealthy Italian family, and there’s a matching villa across the little bay rented by a man called Godfrey Manning.

Godfrey seems to have private means and is occupying himself photographing the island, and a dolphin which is a regular visitor to the bay. Apparently he plans a lavish coffee table book with many large photographs and not a lot of text. Remember, This Rough Magic was published in 1964, when such books were far less common than they are now, and very much more expensive. Especially if the photographs were in colour.

Lucy meets Godfrey, and also bad-tempered Max*, a composer; and his father, the very famous, and now retired, Shakespearean actor, Sir Julian Gale. The Gales are living in the Castello which also belongs to Phyllida’s Italian family. The description of the ramshackle rose garden filled with gorgeous old roses with fabulously romantic names inspired me to plant old roses in my own garden. 

Lucy (who is nearly drowned) and Max discover that the urbane and relaxed Godfrey is not all he seems. With the help of Spiro [er… spoilers] and his sister Miranda, they discover what Godfrey has been up to. No wonder he always seems to have plenty of money.

Probably this untitled book project (if I had to invent a title it might be something along the lines of Glorious Corfu) is just an excuse for Godfrey to hang around Corfu and go sailing as much as he wants. It seems likely that even if he has a publisher lined up, the book will not be published. A pity because everyone who sees them thinks the photographs are wonderful.

Also mentioned in This Rough Magic, a play called Tiger, Tiger by someone called Hayward who also fails on the first name front. It was written for Sir Julian and enjoyed a long run, with Sir Julian in the lead role for eighteen months.

If you haven’t read This Rough Magic yet and might be tempted to look for the text online, do beware of a dreadfully bowdlerised version “as told by” someone who has removed most of the evocative descriptions which make the book so memorable. This is a terrible thing to do to a book. Especially as (as I write in 2023) this book is still in copyright. The tattiest second hand paperback would be a better option. Maybe your best friend would lend you her copy. 

* a sure sign that Max is the hero

Thanks to National Geographic