“SHATTERING RUMPUS"

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29380, 6 December 1960, Page 18

“SHATTERING RUMPUS"

Edith Sitwell Disturbed

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, December 3

Dame Edith Sitwell, 73-year-old author and poetess who lists “silence” in “Who’s Who” as one of her recreations, has asked the Noise Abatement Society for help against what she calls the "shattering rumpus” which is preventing her from getting ahead with her book on Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots. The rumpus comes from an electric drill being used next door to her bedroom in a club in Grosvenor street, Westminster. Dame Edith Sitwell earlier had written to the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) but he wrote back saying he was sorry to hear of her predicament, but that “it is nothing to do with us.” “Noise is an appalling nuisance for everyone, but it is deeply serious for me as I have my living to earn,” said Dame Edith Sitwell. “For more than two months I have been prevented from working on my book. I am afraid they may soon have a pauper lunatic on their hands. The workmen seem to have fixed an electric drill to my wall and when they are not using it from 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. they are hammering. I cannot concentrate or read. My floor shakes with the shattering rumpus. I am well behind schedule.”

Mr John Connell, secretary of the Noise Abatement Society, said he had promised “every help in our power to stop this shattering of nerves” and that an injunction might be taken out against the builders using the drill.

A spokesman for the builders said that other people as well as Dame Edith Sitwell had complained. “We are really terribly sorry and we are doing everything we can to help people—but we can't help making a noise,” he said.