Page 67 - Exile-ebook

66 AN EXILE OF THE MIND STANDING IN FOR THE BEATLES 67

grey hair. She had been a charter
student of Sigmund Freud in the
days of old Vienna. Widowed by the
camps, Mutti fled from a warring
Europe to China and then finally to
New Zealand. A signed photograph
of Albert Einstein, dedicated to
her, hung on the wall of her home.
I encouraged Mutti to record her
amazing story, but she never did.
As novelist Ngaio Marsh, a former
art student, passionately directed
plays f0r the university Drama
Society, the Student Union prepared
to host the Eleventh International
Student Conference. A pubescent
United Nations, germinating future
leaders and letting them loose on the
world. And Canta, the host student
newspaper, was roped in to help out.
Drawing David’s body parts came
to a standstill with art studies suffering
dismally during this busy time, never
to fully recover as I drifted towards
the magic of the written word.
And then the Beatles descended
like a clap of thunder. My Editor’s
Pass and Press Card was used to get
through the police cordon and into
the Clarendon where the Beatles
held court. The press outshouted
one another to ask silly questions

River Avon, Christchurch.