THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[October 31 1939]

Dear Adrian

Many thanks for your letter – I admit gratefully that there has been some good stuff in the last 4t night – but I still think that there are whole programmes of what I call ½ & ½ stuff which are in the present situation no good to any one (I’d rather listen to the Lambeth Walk)¹
Good luck to D&L² – I will try to listen – but I cannot bring myself to listen to music these days.
Yrs

RVW

1.  See VWL1618, footnote. VW was concerned about an apparent drop in the quality of music being broadcast on the B.B.C. following the outbreak of the war and the effect of that on public morale. The Lambeth Walk was a spirited popular song by Noel Gay which has been published in 1938.
2. Possibly VW’s Five variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’.