On being called Thompson
In the Business Supplement of June 18 (Retracing The Road Network), the formidable columnist Lino Spiteri, whom I greatly admire, called me Andre' Camilleri. It immediately brought to mind Alpha of the Plough's famous essay "On being called Thompson"...
In the Business Supplement of June 18 (Retracing The Road Network), the formidable columnist Lino Spiteri, whom I greatly admire, called me Andre' Camilleri. It immediately brought to mind Alpha of the Plough's famous essay "On being called Thompson" which is all about the sentimental value, sometimes exaggerated, of the real name.
It is not that I resent the name Camilleri. It happens to be my mother's name and it is an honourable name. There is, in fact, an authentic Andre' Camilleri and I used to receive telephone calls meant for him.
He is, I believe, a lawyer and a very worthy person who was nominated to the bench but declined the nomination. I feel rather flattered to have been given his name but I do not fancy borrowed plumes. As a little boy I once wrote my name as Andrè Zammit Camilleri but my father tore up my copybook and told me that plain Zammit should do. I do not want to be too hard on Mr Spiteri. He writes practically an article every other day and he said so many nice things about me that I am not sure I shouldn't blush. I ought to be thankful for his mentioning me at all but I am reminded of the time when the Financial Times published an article on the reduced privileges of retiring British senior civil servants saying that they should no longer assume that they would automatically be made "Knight Batchelors" (sic). I was tickled pink and promptly pointed it out to the newspaper with the comment "no wonder they are in the soup!" The wretched editor took out the offending "t" and made my contribution pointless!
The prominent Italian journalist Antonio Capranica has just published a book Papaveri e Papere which is an anthology of gaffes. I had a few stashed away but I think I have missed the deadline.