Winifred Atwell Back —Four Stone Lighter

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29339, 19 October 1960, Page 2

Winifred Atwell Back —Four Stone Lighter

Four stone lighter and looking years younger, Winifred Atwell arrived at the Chnstchureh airport last evening half-an-hour earlier than expected. And although the airliner, which brought her from Australia, was ahead of schedule a crowd of enthusiasts was there to meet her, many of them old friends who entertained her op previous visits in 1955 and 1959.

“I felt like the Pied Piper, followed by all those children with their little bits of paper for autographs,” sheiremarked in her jovial way.

Dropping four stone in weight has been a costly business for Miss Atwell She figures it out at “more than £lOOO a stone.” “It meant buying a completely new wardrobe—evening gowns, cocktail dresses and day frocks—and that came to about £5OOO. Nothing would fit when I reduced,” she laughed. But the effort and outlay were well worth it. "I feel much better now,” she said. Winifred Atwell got up one morning and decided to slim. She said nothing to anyone about it, just went ahead on a diet she planned for herself which rigidly cut our carbohydrates. She took no reducing tablets and did not weigh herself for seven months. It is no hardship for Miss At-

wen to refuse a piece of Pavlova cake. She never did like cream. “I don’t make a martyr of myself about this diet. I can eat as much as I like in the way of meat, salads, fruit and other nonstarchy foods,” she said.. “Other Piano”

To New Zealand Miss Atwell has- brought her famous “other piano.” For two segments of her concerts at the Civic Theatre she will use the theatre’s Steinway grand, but for the third parts she win play the old upright which cost her 50s in a London junk shop and brought her instant fame.

“My old piano has cost me thousands to transport, but it travels weH. I have no worries about it,” she said. Since her last visit to New Zealand, Miss Atwell has made a tour of the West Indies, where she was born. “It was the first time I’d been back home to play since I went abroad. It was just wonderful. Although my mother and father live with my husband and me in London, I stin have masses of relatives and friends in Trinidad. I met relations I did not know I had,” she said. “My heart is split between London and Trinidad.” Miss Atwell recently sold her home in London and will return to a fiat “I love a nice home and I enjoy *fi ddling around’ a house, but housework? No. Too monotonous, that eternal round of dishes is not for me," she said.

In any case, peeling potatoes and washing dishes are chores not intended for a pianist’s hands insured at £40,000.