Sir, I was pleased that you gave such a generous Obituary to Willie Donaldson (June 27).
He clearly had a very naughty life, but I remember him fondly as the man who gave me my first paid job. It was the summer of 1965 and in return for helping Terry Jones to write a theatrical documentary called The Love Show (a history of attitudes to sex — very 1960s) Willie wrote me a cheque for £50 which he handed over in a pub in Sloane Square.
Almost a year later, Willie bought myself and my wife-to-be a lovely meal and urged us, with his usual charm, not, under any circumstances, to get married to each other. The Love Show sadly never went into production. The marriage has been running 38 years.
Willie’s favourite phrase, which he would bring out whenever things were going really badly, which was often, was “onwards and upwards”, as in “onwards and upwards Parlin”, always deliberately mispronouncing my surname.
I smile when I think of him, and miss his style.
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Ah well, onwards and upwards.
MICHAEL PALIN
Gospel Oak, London