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INTRODUCTION When I was compiling my collection of verse under the title Uncultured Pearls, I gradually expanded the content. First I decided to add the aphorisms, limericks, clerihews and other forms of "not-quite-verse" that had spewed from my pen over the decades. And then I wrote: But the meanderings of my imagination did not stop there. The discovery of material written at significant (certainly for me, and possibly for others) periods of history suggested that the printed material could profitably be annotated so as to make it relevant to the period and circumstances that attended its birth, as well as a number of "digressions" to set it within the context of economic, social and political history that might enliven its pages. In a very short space of time these "digressions" started to swamp all the other content of the book. I felt that the tail was wagging the dog, but I found myself fascinated by the wealth of memories that were returning to me, and the faint hope that they might prove of equal fascination to others. This was boosted by the recollection of my meeting in 1994 with the actress Maureen Lipman, and her injunction at the conclusion of that meeting that I should "never apologise for chutzpah". Chutzpah is, of course, a word of Yiddish origin that has found its way widely into the English language, although still described by the OED as "slang". In common with much of Yiddish there is no single authoritative definition, but a combination of audacity, cheek, and insolence seems to come closest. Actually chutzpah is best defined by a joke that has a man, found guilty of the murder of his mother and father, throwing himself on the mercy of the court as a poor orphan. On examining many of the "digressions" and looking into further aspects of my life, I became aware of he considerable influence of chutzpah throughout my growth and development. It will have to be a new book, I thought, complete in itself. The title was already there. So I offer this to you with no hint of an apology.
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