Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2010/January 2011 | Page 11

five years of Island Life

Island Life - December 2010

explorations. Look out for updates in
future editions.
TALES of derring-do continued (same
issue) with ‘Attagirl’ Mary Ellis, wartime
pilot who delivered over 1,000 of 76
different types of military aircraft for
active service, including 400 Spitfires
(Issue 13 Dec/Jan 08). When she
delivered a Wellington bomber she was
asked where was the pilot. “I’m the
pilot,” she said – but they didn’t believe
her.
Since: On 10 July this year Mary
attended a service at Hamble-le-Rice
when a memorial to members of the Air
Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was unveiled.
Not only that, she has been in three
films this year as part of the Battle of
Britain celebrations and flew Carolyn
Grace's ML407 Spitfire in Suffolk.
ON the subject of films, Bill Bristow’s
extraordinary story began with
discovering his father had been a spy
during the war, and took him from
working in finance in the City to flying
out to Los Angeles to make films.
(Issues 25/26, Dec-Mar 10) Writing and
acting led to friendships with the likes
of Whoopi Goldberg. Enough of LA was
enough, eventually, and he came to the
Island to stir up the arts scene here.
Since: Bill has thrown himself into
the life of the Island, working with
the Priory School in starting a film
club and encouraging pursuit of the
arts in general. He is also hoping to
affect local issues by putting himself
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forward to stand for the parish council
Bembridge.
The story of film historian Tony
Dalton, from Freshwater, proved a
fascinating read, (Issue 24, Oct/Nov 09)
for he has also rubbed shoulders with
the great and the good and is archivist
of Ray Harryhausen, special effects
pioneer. With BAFTA, he was planning
something rather hush hush.
Since: That was in fact a big 90th
birthday party for Ray, when director
Peter Jackson presented him with a
Bafta for Lifetime Achievement. “We
had lots of film actors from various of
Ray’s films, Jason and the Argonauts,
Carolyn Monroe from Sinbad, and
all the great Hollywood special
effects people.” (see it on www.
rayharryhausen.com ). See more of
Tony’s exploits in a future edition of
Island Life.
THE wonderful thing about veteran
artist Cavendish Morton’s story was
that the practical skills he learnt, such
as boatmaking, enhanced the realism
of the paintings he made (Issue 14,
Feb/March 08). We visited him at the
time of a major retrospective of his
work, which displayed the extraordinary
variety of work over his lifetime.
Since: Two more ‘one man’ exhibitions
of Cavvy’s work have been staged, and
he has also featured in other mixed
exhibitions put on by John McLagan.
Since he was featured over 200 of his
paintings have been sold. Next year he
celebrates his 100th birthday.

AT the other end of the age range,
Richard Hall is a young organist from
Ryde School who was making serious
waves in the music world. At just 17
he organised a remarkable concert
where he performed with other skilled
musicians of that age.
Now: studying music at King's College
London, where he is junior organ
scholar, Richard has