I REMEMBER...Tim Rice
Reader's Digest UK|October 2022
English lyricist and author Tim Rice, 77, is known for writing lyrics for the world's best-loved musicals, including Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita
Maureen Paton
I REMEMBER...Tim Rice

THE VERY FIRST THING THAT I REMEMBER is seeing a snail on a gatepost when my father Hugh and my mother Joan lived in Croxley Green in Hertfordshire. I doubt if I was even three years old; it would have been around 1947. Obviously I couldn't foresee that 20 years later in 1967 the pop star Donovan would write a song, "There Is A Mountain", whose lyric referenced a snail on a gatepost! But it seems very serendipitous in retrospect that I grew up to have a career as a lyricist.

MINE WAS A SUN-DAPPLED CHILDHOOD WITH MY TWO YOUNGER BROTHERS JONATHAN (JO) AND ANDREW. We weren't incredibly wealthy, but we had a very nice middle-class upbringing. Dad worked for the de Havilland Aircraft Company as its Far East representative. A wonderful thing happened when he was sent to Japan for a year in 1954 and took the whole family with him. It was a great childhood adventure and I was old enough, at ten, to appreciate it. There I listened to the American Forces Radio, which got me hooked on popular music.

I WAS A KEEN STAMP-COLLECTOR AS A CHILD, which was what first made me aware of Eva "Evita" Perón-whose glamorous image on Argentinian stamps as its First Lady was one of my favourites. I recall feeling sorry at the news of her death in 1952; like my father, I was already an avid newspaper reader from the age of seven.

Then in 1955 while we were still in Japan, I remember reading that her husband, President Juan Perón, had been ousted. So, unlike most British people, I was always vaguely aware of the Peróns long before I heard a radio documentary about Evita in 1973. I suggested to my collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber that a musical about her life would make a great follow-up to our hit with Jesus Christ Superstar.

Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA READER'S DIGEST UKSe alt
EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME
Reader's Digest UK

EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME

Do you want to save 1.5 seconds every day of your life? According to the dishwasher expert at the consumer organisation Choice, there’s no need to insert the dishwashing tablet into the compartment inside the door.

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
May Fiction
Reader's Digest UK

May Fiction

An escaped slave's perspective renews Huckleberry Finn and the seconds tick down to nuclear Armageddon in Miriam Sallon’s top literary picks this month

time-read
1 min  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Wine Not
Reader's Digest UK

Wine Not

In a time of warning studies about alcohol consumption, Paola Westbeek looks at non-alcoholic wines, how they taste and if they pair with food

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Train Booking Hacks
Reader's Digest UK

Train Booking Hacks

With the cost of train travel seemingly always rising, Andy Webb gives some tips to save on ticket prices

time-read
4 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Reader's Digest UK

JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Here, far from the crowds, in opal clarity, from May to September, the sun knows no rest. As soon as it’s about to set, it rises again

time-read
8 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
My Britain: Cheltenham
Reader's Digest UK

My Britain: Cheltenham

A YEAR IN CHELTENHAM sees a jazz festival, a science festival, a classical music festival and a literature festival. Few towns with 120,000 residents can boast such a huge cultural output!

time-read
6 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB
Reader's Digest UK

GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB

Whether you love digging in the dirt, planting seeds and reaping the bounty that bursts forth, or find the whole idea of gardening intimidating, this spring offers the promise of a fresh start.

time-read
6 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant
Reader's Digest UK

Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant

After working in TV and radio as an author and nutritionist, Suzi Grant started a blog alternativeageing.net) and an Instagram account alternativeageing). She talks to Ian Chaddock about positive ageing”

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World
Reader's Digest UK

Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World

Sam Quek MBE is an Olympic gold medalwinning hockey player, team captain on A Question of Sport and host of podcast series Amazing Starts Here

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024
Stand Tall, Ladies
Reader's Digest UK

Stand Tall, Ladies

Shorter men may be having their moment, but where are the tall women?

time-read
3 mins  |
Reader's Digest May 2024