TELEPATHY ON THE AIR

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26094, 22 April 1950, Page 3

TELEPATHY ON THE AIR

The Piddingtons. By Russell Braddon. Werner Laurie, 238 pp. Two young Australians, Sydney and Lesley Piddington, introduced a new form of entertainment to 8.8. C. listeners last year and at once became < bjects of interest and controversy. Their act, which put the unpromising subject of telepathy on the air. quickly produced a flock of newspaper and magazine stories, letters to the newspapers (“The Times” included, of course), material for leading cart »onists (including David Low), jokes for music hall comedians and—success for the Piddingtons. But Russell Kraddon’s book is such excellent valine because in telling the story of the Piddmgions t ranges so far and deals with so much that is worth telling and worth reading. The opening scene of the book is the Tower of London where Lesley Piddington is located with microphone, technicians, and observers. She is there to broadcast a message her husband, is trying to send her. without mechanical aids or any verbal communication, from the Piccadilly studio of the 8.8. C. The second chapter of the book flashes back to the Malayan campaign early in 1942 when Russell Braddon and Sydney Piddington were two young Australian soldiers fighting in the retreat down the peninsula. Hard, harsh experiences and thrilling adventures fell to both. The account of the Malayan campaign is that of the soldier in the ranks. His bewilderment at the incoherent and unconnected pattern of the military retreat is brilliantly conveyed. The serious and the grim are lightened by flashes of humour; there is irony, and some understandable bitterness. /

s The book’s next phase concerns four years of captivity Piddington and Braddon spent in Japanese hands. It records again the savage brutality and crue'.ty of the captors and the almost incredible response of the human body i d the human mind to excesses, hardships. and abuses. Entertainment was promoted bv the prisoners to alleviate the mental as well as the physical hardships f c ptivity at Changi. After reading an articl? in a magazine about telepathy. Piddington and Braddon ventured to try it. Finding that it orked they built a telepathy “act” whic>- L ’came in the Singapore prison ci.mp as lively a subject for controversy and discussion as the “act” of the Piddingtons in London subsequently became. The captivity section of the book is graced by some sketches t Ronald Searle, now a famous cartoonist and illustrator in London and best known, perhaps, for his creations of the odious schoolgirls of St. Trinians. Searle was a leading figure in the prisoners’ theati group at Changi a ■ >up which also operated, with many risks and alarms, the camp’s secret radio. After release, Biddington and Braddon returned to Australia

where Piddin ton met and married a young radio and stage actress, Lesley Pope, who .ually took Braddon's place at the receiving end of Pidd ngton’s telepathy “act." After considerable success with it on the radio in Australia, the Piddingtons took the “act” to London and into the 8.8. C. programmes. Although the Piddingtons are the central characters, Russell Braddon is as much in evidence to the reader as those whose story he is telling. This follows naturally in part because so many of Piddington’s experiences were 'Braddon’s own. His enthusiasm for Syd "iev Piddington and later for Lesley Piddington lead Braddon. possibly. to overpaint his picture in some places. But this is excusable when virility in writing and a gift for graphic expression contribute so subs antially to the success of the vivid and exciting and most readable book. Praddon has put together around the Piddingtons.