The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 13

OBITUARIES 1 13 TIm Guardian Monday June 16 1997 Amos Tutuola Amos Tutuola his unique written style seemed a valid vehicle for the expression of his particular obsession with ghosts both quick and dead Weaver of fantasy 1 Tutuola was married to Victoria Alake in 1947. He leaves four sons and four daughters. BaaPW moral tales any narrative that entertained. The family could not afford to keep Tutuola at school so he became a house-boy to a government clerk. His new master enrolled him at Ipose-Ake's Anglican school at the end of the 1930s, and later at Lagos High School.

He then trained as a blacksmith and got a wartime job at a Nigerian Royal Air Force base. After the war came unem ployment, and in 1948 a job as a messenger with the labour department in Lagos. But he was bored, and reverted to the almost forgotten childhood habit of story telling. In the absence of an audience, he wrote the tales down on scrap paper. Initially, Tutuola had no in tention of trying to get his work published but after completing his extraordinary The Palm-Wine Drinkard it took him 48 hours he saw a newspaper advertisement for the United Society for Christian Literature and sent off THE Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola, who has died aged 77.

was the author of The Palm Wine Drinkard, and a spinner of strange and compelling fantasy. When he narrated one of his own storips such as Ma With Her Kolanut Tree his expressive hand gesturing impatiently, miming the words he had such difficulty in articulating, one realised that the tales seething in his mind were reality to him. He was born in Abeokuta in Ogun state in south-western Nigeria. Like almost all Nigerian children, he was brought up on "moonlight legends and fairy stories with a moral, told by his mother and aunt. His formal education began as a 10-year-old at Salvation Army School.

An undistinguished pupil, he escaped at holiday time to his father's farm where in the evenings he and a friend would sit in the darkness and tell one another ghost stories, the manuscript. Through their efforts it reached Faber Faber and was published in 1952. Despite the book's international success Tutuola still wanted to be a blacksmith he also worked as a clerk and a storekeeper but his fail ure to find employment led to him writing his second book Mv Life in the Hush of Ghosts (1954). Like The Palm Wine Drinkard. the first draft was written in two days, again, the setting was the Nigerian countryside, and again the book was a success Both books later became plays.

Tutuola went on to write short stories, based on Nigerian folklore, which were broadcast by the BBC. Five more books followed in which readers entered into his world of illusion and fantasy. In 1950 SiiHui uiiu ihe Suiyr of the Dark Feather was published, and four years later Woman of the Jungle. In 1967 came Ajayi and His Inherited Poverty and in 1980 The Witch llei Ixilist of the Remote Town. His last title was Pauper Brawler and Slanderer in 1987 Tutuola wrote as he spoke, recreating the story -telling, the folk tale and myth, with which he had grown up.

As he confessed, he more than half-believed his own stories which jarred with his own strong Christian views. The author was also worried that his English was not good enough for him to be a "real writer" and he attended classes. "I am not telling the story as it is in my head all the time," he observed. "I cannot speak good English for them yet." The reality was a unique style, a vehicle for the expression of his work. For many years Tutuola had a larger international audience than he did in Nigeria.

The oral Yoruba tradition on which he drew, obsessed with ghosts both quick and dead, was initially little appreciated by his fellow countrymen. dents towards the book and a clear indication that they did not consider it good enough to engage the serious attention of educated adults like them selves. They could not sec what it was about Of course Tutuola's art conceals or rather clothes his purpose, as all good art must do. But anybody who asks what the story is about can hardly have read him And I suspect that many who talk about Tutuola one way or another are yet to read him The first two sentences in The Palm-Wine Drinkard tell us clearly enough what the story is about. "I was a palm-wine dnn kard since I was a boy of ten years of age I had no other work more than to drink palm wine in my life." This IS uii trdiiru e.iMIl from an fssoy in Achehe's collection Hopes and Impediments (Hcin emann.

I9SH) Amos Tutuola writer, born 1920. died June 8. 1997 Tayo Jam KoIiiujii writtti Nigeria is one of the most dangerous of all countries in which to be a writer yet has one of the most vibrant literatures. Alongside Achebe, Soyinka, Chinweizu. Okri and the late Saro-Wiwa.

the name of Amos Tutuola is familiar to "uncountable" English-language readers throughout the world. The contemporary tradition of which he was at the heart of is in direct opposition to assimilation. It has endured the horrors of imperialism and at the depth of that pit has clung on, and moved to find a way forwards. Tutuola breathed life into the deadening voice of the coloniser, the life derives from the rhythms and speech patterns of the languages indigenous to his people and culture. I first read The Palm Wine perhaps the hardest route in the Western Alps when Brendan and the blunt and ambitious New Zealander Dave Wills made the first winter ascent to the summit over five days at Christmas 1992.

But it was in the brilliant other-world of the Himalaya that Brendan's ability reached its full expression. Technically gifted and with an innate mountain sense, he eschewed the freakish side-show of Everest and the other peaks in favour of long, sustained and difficult routes on Brendan Murphy Climber who CMinm ActMlM addat A young Nigerian woman doing a higher degree in America said to me when I taught there in the 1970s. "1 hear you teach It was not a simple statement; her accent was heavy with accusation We discussed the matter for a while and it became quite clear that she considered The Palm-Wine Drinkard to be childish and crude and certainly not the kind of thing a patriotic Nigerian should be exporting to America. Back in Nigeria a few years later I also noticed a certain condescension among my stu- calm alpinist from the late 1970s Dick Renshaw, who shared Brendan's slight figure and Celtic good looks. Both men worked hard to help their partner in circumstances when self-preservation seems completely justifiable.

Brendan's last climb illustrated his abilities to the utmost. Changabang is one of the most spectacular mountains in the world and its north face remained one of the greatest challenges Brendan and Andy Cave endured 10 days of bitter cold, poor weather and spindrift and still managed to reach the summit on June 1 despite running out of food. It was Brendan's best success of his climbing career Close behind them were Mick Fowler and Steve Sus-tad. who, after reaching the top of the vast face, fell 200 feet down the other side but stopped in soft snow before falling the length of the moun tain to certain death. The two parlies joined forces to help the injured Sustad descend.

During the iong trip down. Fowler shouted up to his friends that the line he was on was too steep for the injured Sustad to manage. Brendan didn't hesitate. Climbing to one side to set up another abseil rone on a more gentle incline, an avalanche suddenly swept down and carried him for at least 500 metres. His body remains on the mountain.

Ed Douglas Brendan Murphy, climber born August 24. 1963, died June 3, 1997 Compared to the commercial slickness behind many expeditions, the cheerful amateurism of Brendan was a blessed relief Sa 1 Drinkard in the early 1970s and felt an immediate kinship, as when I read Sam Selvon's Lonely Londoners. It isn't surprising that this kinship should exist between writers engaged in similar formal struggles. What is so striking is that the context should remain unfathomable to the mainstream world of English literature. Tutuola 's achievement was truly masterful; in what by most accounts is a contradiction in terms, he became a tradition-bearer in an alien language.

What a formidable artist he was. stayed one occasion he drove alone from London to Fort William and Ben Nevis, walked to the foot of his north-east buttress, and set off on his lone climb up the routes Astral Highway and Minus One objectives which would be the lifetime ambition for most good climbers, with a rope and a paitner to hold it. Friends he met in the pub that evening asked him what he had done. "Had a good day," was the reply. In a recent interview he rated the Cuillin Ridge of Skye as his best climb with its aesthetic ideal of "mountains, sea, sunshine and Brendan was superbly self-effacing.

In 1992 he sent me a note asking if I could put a paragraph in a climbing magazine I was editing, if it was not too much trouble, about a forthcoming expedition he was sharing to the South Ridge of Gasherbrum IV which would be particularly expensive. Compared to the commercial slickness behind many modern expeditions, the cheerful amateurism of Brendan and his friends was a blessed relief. On the hill he was deter mined, long-suffering and supportive and revelled in diffi culties he would term character Those who climbed with him compared Brendan to the British got you 2,000 88.12p, 91 you 3,000 112.50 pro wOJojrtyoti 8,000 165.62,. n0J)OMfM 7,800 220J3p QM )tm 10,000 Tel Day iipaymnU for oHroct loan of varytao amaanai owaf ftyaant viMhotit oottonat ctidN mauranc Or compter Ihe FREEPOST tot Surname First Names nn Address Birthdays Lord Aberdare, chairman, the Football Trust. 78: Lord Astor of Hever.

51: Eileen Atkins, actress. 63; James Bolam, actor. 59; Lt-Gen Sir Thomas Boyd-Carpenter. chairman, the social security advisory board, deputy Chief of the Defence Staff. 59; Julia Cole, writer and agonv aunt, 41; Howard Flight, Con servative MP.

49: Grant Fox. New Zealand rugby player. 35; Katharine Graham, pro prietor. the Washington Post, 80. Tom Graveney.

cm eter. 70: Professor Harold Hanham, vice-chain Lancaster Univei dh. The Rt Rev Dav id Kon-stant, Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds, 67; Neil MacGregor, director. National Gallery. 51; Ian Matthew, singer and song writer.

51; Enoch Powell, former Conservative MP and ihinet minister, 85; Sir Ralph Robins, chairman. Rolls-Royce. 65, John Salthouse, actor. 46. Professor Erich Segal, classical scholar and screenwriter.

60; Phyllis Sellick. concert pi.i nist. 86; David Whelton, managing director, the Phil harmonia Orchestra. 43. Simon Williams, actor.

51 Death Notices BAEfTENBACH Knare-sr uj', tVth 1cit' i-i j. Marriages CMOUDHURY' PHILLIPS Mrs iK D' ot hn hps 3-c Ph. O'M 45fc' 9am drj HNk of 01 07.06.97 tMWM WHEN CALLING rOOtJojkJ bflflCfl OAOObM cooAt Ofik Brendan Murphy never allowed ambition to get in the Davis for empire IN THE armoury of the modern mountaineer, along with physical endurance and bloody-minded-ness, the ability to remain calm is obligatory. Brendan Murphy, who has died aged 33 in an avalanche in India after one of the most remarkable efforts in British mountaineering history, had all three qualities but never allowed his ambition or drive to intervene in the more serious business of having fun and staying friends. Born in Dublin, he grew up in Cornwall and then London.

He began to take a strong interest in climbing at Cambridge where he read Engineering and where he first met two climbing partners who would have a great influence on his life, Robert Dur-ran who shared his first Himalayan expedition to Pakistan in 1985, and the leading female alpinist Kate Phillips who later became his partner. Brendan's mountaineering progress began while studying for his doctorate at Loughborough University. There he met Jerry Gore, an enthusiastic ex-Marine who with his equally dedicated friends provided impetus for Brendan's climbing career. In 1989, with Durran, Brendan climbed the north wall of the Eiger in winter, finishing in atrocious conditions. While climbing the Eiger in winter is never routine, it had been done before although not by an Irishman.

However Divine Providence, a steep and desperate line on the Eckpfeiler Buttress of Mont Blanc, was still considered A junior judge at the time remembers him as having all the characteristics of a confirmed bachelor, apprehensive for the safety of his collection of fine furniture when his younger colleague's two small children ran amok on a visit to his "amazingly orderly" house. He was far too polite to ask them to be brought in check In 1980 he became Chief Justice of Gibraltar at a time when the island was becoming a financial centre and less happily achieving eminence in the international drug and smuggling trade. Davis retired in 1986, but in uittuiiu paii-time work. He became the Chief Justice of the Falkland Islands and an Appeal Court Judge in Gibraltar, the British Antarctic Territory, the In dian Ocean and St Helena He was a theatregoer and, as bledon fortnight without doubles duo Gigi Frenandez and Natasha Zvereva would be like queuing up fui hours to see kd lang and not hearing Constant Craving or, even worse, freezing your tits off without being entertained by one of the lovelv Australian Minogue sisters at the end of the day. Lesbian lifestyle magazine Diva gives an alternative per spectivean Wimbledon.

100 times WELCOME to the News. Britain's first Fortean maga zine. Many people are under the impression, from reading the variety of Fortean books currently flooding the market, that anomalous and enigmatic phenomena are rare, and even more rarely reported. But this magazine will be a testimony to the papers being as full of the damned stuff as they were when Fort ruined his eyes in the British Museum. He was quite definite about this point: "I never write about marvels.

The 91 a month will get you 4,000 mountains the public had not heard of He also preferred to climb in what he felt was the purest style possible for his objectives. Such rigorous standards inevitably meant failure. In 1991, he went to India with Andy Perkins to attempt a desperate new route on Cerro Kistwar, up terrain so uniformly steep that they carried a platform with them to sleep on. After 15 days of slog, short on food, wet, cold and lashed by spindrift they elected to descend despite being only 150 metres from the summit, finding the correct balance between ambition and survival. There were successes to compensate.

He climbed Ama Da'uidiu wiih Kate Phiiiips and never lost his enthusiasm for rock and ice climbing. On with many barristers who are themselves actors manque, he had an abiding interest in amateur dramatics. He was also a keen walker but perhaps his greatest interest was classical music. In his younger days he was a very clubbable man, belonging to clubs in London, Gibraltar and Nairobi. He became an old-fashioned gentleman with civlized values who was widely liked, something which could not be said for all colonial judges of his time.

He was awarded an OBE in 1971 and was knighted in 1981. In 1984 Davis married a wid ow. Mary Pearce. whom he iiciu known from university days and who survives him. Sr Denviut Rena Davis, judge, born November 20.

1928. died June 6. 1997 wonderful or the never-be-fore-hearrl-of, I leave to whimsical, or radical fellows. All the books by me are of quite ordinary occur fences "But it is not that 1 take numerous repetitions, as a standard for admission the fellow who found the pearl in the oyster stew -the old fiddle that turned out to be a Stradivarius the ring that was lost in a lake, and then what should be found when a fish is caught but these often repeated yarns are conventional yarns. And almost all liars are conventionalists." A mission statement from the first issue of the News, which later became the Fortean Times, now celebrating its 100th issue Jackdaw wants jewels.

E-mail jackdaws guardian.co.uk.; fax 01 71-713 4366, write Jackdaw, TheGuardian. 119 Far-ringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER. Hannah Pool Toko otfvontagt of ow tanot rata rapmnwib guevontad not to raw lor tho entire tortn of your tan. any sswst 82,800 op te 15,000 tor afewst Enjoy tat Mtcurtty of dtiHno toNh ono of thfl U.K.'s most Mo bonoHoi of oooflno dkoct opood, oonvonionco and tanr Momtrata. Ofdf Mt ojMmms tftpourii aw Row 1HMIM way of fun shared their absent colleague's salary.

Proceeding were conducted in both languages with interpreters, and counsel were expected to wear the robes of their own countries. On one occasion an Australian barrister appeared before the court fully robed to the waist but wearing shorts and sandals beneath his gown. No comment was passed In Mavis returned to the Solomon Islands as Chief Justice, sitting as a judge for the Gilbert and Ellice Islands as well as a member of the High Court (if ttv Western Pacific. In 197H he became Chief Justice of Tuvalu Courtly love IN a game where partner swapping is the rule rather than the exception, tennis fans used to be able to rely on a couple of top doubles teams to tip up at the big events and lay on some excellent entertainment, but is seems this year even the constants are set on being inconsistent To many tennis fans, a Wim- Fortean Times 100 up 48 Monthly Totdl Amount Paynients Paid P'bVt 84 I 114 tb S04 64 CI 12 7ti I i 411 44 RB Decl TS8 Barclay NalWrst 17.0 ItuOH Sir Derniot Rena A judge SIR Dermot Rena Davis, who has died aged 68. was one of the last of Britain's colonial judges.

Born in the White High lands of Kenya he became head boy of Nairobi's Prince of Wales Boarding School and read law at Wadham College, Oxford. Called to the Bar in he joined Inner Temple and practised in Nairobi. Dur ing the Mau-Mau troubles he joined the chambers of the Kenya Attorney-General before becoming a prosecutor. This was a time before there was a reduction in the colonial legal service and in 1962 he left Kenya to become Attor Save the male ONE of the possible consequences of advances in clon ing is said to be the eventual removal of men from the production loop. I just read that Japanese scientists have managed to induce preg nancy in cow1! by chemical means, without using sperm.

And because they use only their mother's DNA, the resulting calves are always female. You can see where this is going. Once sperm is no longer part of the recipe, us fellas lose our significance as the sole source of the major ingredient. As nonessential staff, men will be aBaBaBHKa 4b Monthly Total Amount PffifjJjnpjJfflfJ Payments Paid fJOBJffffifflOOJ rb ninr 04M riser raV)9 68 J.Clay U.O UOOfl I CI 633 00TM4 3SB MO) f' i-9An2o I Miut I NatWmt C9.324 96 1 tOOOJO 1 ney-General of the Solomon Islands. He was also legal ad viser to the Western Pacific High Commission.

In 197.) he moved to the New Hebrides as the British judge One reason for this appoint ment was that his father was half-French the other half was Irish and Davis was bilingual. There should have been three judges one British, one French and one Spanish, appointed by the King of Spain. Since there was then no Spanish King there was no appointment, and the French and British judges, sittinu together in the judicial robes of their respective countries. phased out, and will eventually become extinct. GQ worries about the future of its subscribers.

Places of grace BY Tinding where we came from we have a chance to dis cover who we are. In England two of the most popular places of ilgrimage las-tonbury and Walsingham -set out to satisfy that primi tive urge. In the Middle Ages, both of them came to fame very soon after Canterbury' Cathedral began trading on the martyrdom of St Thomas a Becket. The Benedictines of Glastonbury discovered the grave of King Arthur. What better draw for root-seeking pilgrimage? Centuries before the Somerset levels were filled by Dutch hydraulic engineers, Glastonbury Tor stood out as a boundary post between Saxon and Celt.

If from that miscegenation England was emerging, where better to celebrate than Glastonbury? The Tablet on roots-seeking. The Royal oMofScooaTid APR 13.7 PLEASE QUOTE CODE 020 information bMow and tend to The Royal Bank Princess Street. Manchester Mt SOP (no stamp (MrsMisstei full) ot Scotland pk: requredl Postcode Tel tvonvg Tl ScotaMitt HwMnMOnici SI MnM Sgun hMugfiilUrc HagMmfl.fScglBnllo appun muMagMoifr mm mWMuJ ivimi niwi on at "waKatttmtaaranKHioar jlariww iMonone rjai may oe iwuroid fa KwiictY 01 tiawiv; powt.