1840: Claude Monet, whiskered creator of canvases of water-lilies so vast <br />you have to stand across the room to see what they are <br />– “all paint, ” as my artist friend remarked, <br />revelling in the sensuousness of surfaces – <br />and of countless prints, diaries, <br />tea-towels and table-mats; father of Impressionism. <br /> <br />1889: Jawaharlal Nehru, pandit (learned master) : <br />father of modern India. In his homeland his birthday <br />is Children’s Day, because he loved children – though even he <br />couldn’t eat a whole one. <br /> <br />1900: Aaron Copland, American composer (Appalachian Spring, <br />el Salón México, Rodeo, etc., etc.) . <br /> <br />1919 (but some say 1922) : Veronica Lake, iconic movie star of the 1940s. <br /> <br />1948: Prince Charles Windsor, king-in-waiting (a long time) , famous for talking <br />(A) to plants (since he admitted it in an interview) <br />and (B) indiscreetly on the telephone to his mistress <br />(since the security services leaked the call) . <br />When I was a boy they played the National Anthem on my birthday, <br />only it was for him, not for me. <br /> <br />1954: Condoleezza Rice (two ‘E’s and two ‘Zee’s) , famous for being <br />black, and a woman, and arguably one of the most powerful people in the world. <br /> <br />and 1967: Letitia Dean, one-time soap-opera actress, landlady of a fictional pub <br />in a fictional East End, now a “personality”. <br /> <br />Celebrity makes strange bedfellows.<br /><br />Paul Hansford<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-accident-of-birth/
