It’s not every day you get to meet a ‘living legend’, and there can be few people who fulfill that role whilst being totally grounded in reality, able to claim with a roguish smile that they’ve “never done a days work” in their life whilst surrounded by the memorabilia of over 80 years of accomplishments, and get their housekeeper to serve up tea and crumpets on a sunny Sunday afternoon when you ‘pop-in’ for a visit.
Here’s a man who’s played violin with Albert Einstein, and had a chat with Orville Wright and Neil Armstrong. Covered the moon-landings for the BBC and inspired countless thousands in science and technology. He ran an observatory at the age of 13, and once swallowed a fly, live on air.
I speak of Sir Patrick Moore, a true gentlemen of the old school; as British as fish ‘n’ chips, village cricket, steam engines and strawberries and cream. As a youngster I met him once before in London, speaking at a Astronomy event, it must have been 1982.
Our local Astronomy Club was invited, in person, to visit Sir Patrick in his home at Selsey, and what a home! A detached thatched cottage directly out of a chocolate box picture, with an interior that almost certainly hasn’t been updated since 1960.
Passing the ‘airlock’, a set of doors which must be opened strictly in sequence to prevent the egress of Ptolomy (Patrick’s cat) you are met with the bizarre sight of oak panelled furniture covered in the most eclectic collection of ’stuff’, a real menagerie of ‘things’.
His ancient Woodstock typewriter nestles alongside a BAFTA award, which is flanked by a couple of ‘Clangers’. His OBE and CBE share pride of place with a penny trinket from a Christmas cracker. The walls are festoned with awards, certificates, shot glasses, globes, orreries, models, badges, plaques, rocks, plastic toys and various unidentified creatures. Every spare space is packed with items from over 80 years, and everywhere else you see shelf upon shelf of books, many penned by the knight himself.
A modern flatscreen computer sits uneasily alongside a series of family photos, finding itself the curiousity, rather than the norm.
A coffee table modelled after the Eagle lunar lander is the centre point of one room, whilst a series of globes (mostly of Mars, rather than the Earth) is the centre of the next. We’re invited to pull up a chair (an assortment of antique furniture, button backed red leather). Every room has atleast one telescope in it, most have several.
We chat, as if we’ve known each other for years. He generously gives us a book, or two, or three, signs them and inquires as to what we’ve been doing in our club. He even offers to write an article for us; a visit is no longer an option he indicates, with sincere disappointment.
A pause as our tea and cakes arrive. We’re welcome to have an alcoholic drink too, it’s with regret we can’t join him in a G&T.
We talk about Astronomy of course, and Cricket, and Cub-Scouts and Big Brother (no, it was a rumour). He invites us to return with our children. He loves children. Never married of course, his fiancee killed by the Germans in the war, a thoughtful pause.
We must see his telescopes! Of course! So we troup outside and wander around the garden. The famous 15″ reflecting Fullerscope, inside an oil drum, and the 8″ refractor inside a ‘roll of roof’ (which is jammed).
On return we pester politely for a photo to which he is more than happy to oblige. I repay him by playing a tune on his Piano… I’ve played Sir Patrick Moore’s Piano! It’s flanked by a collection of Xylophones, but of course.
An hour an a half has passed, all too quick, but we’re conscious not to outstay our welcome. At 86, he gets tired quickly, and he clear wants to watch the Tennis… on Sky Plus… he still moves with the times.
And so we leave, hardly able to believe we did it. A remarkable day, a remarkable life, a remarkable man.
Sir Patrick Moore, many thanks indeed!
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