Culture: The time of your life with Virginia Ironside

From Chelsea in the roaring sixties to the stage this side of the millennium, Virginia Ironside has seen it all. . . and done much more.

Born in the forties, the daughter of coin designer and painter Christopher and her ‘style icon’ mother Janey, both professors at London’s famed

Royal College of Art – Virginia is also the niece of visionary painter/designer, Robin Ironside – she has heritage indeed.

Publishing her first book at just 20, Chelsea Bird was released in 1964 – a witty, tongue-in-cheek portrayal of an art student, Harriet, and her Chelsea friends, a tale which led the young Virginia on a journey unheard of.

It was to be a journey she rode alongside names such as Dame Shirley Williams and Sir Michael Parkinson, Nigel Planer and Ian Lavender, among many others; Virginia’s written for numerous news publications including The Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Mirror, the Daily Mail and Independent; and there’s been The Virginia Monologues and Growing Old Disgracefully, just for added measure.

Although not disgracefully, Virginia has occasionally spent time looking back on those six decades in both written and spoken word and, with a rare stage appearance upcoming at the Theatre Royal, October 14, it’s certainly been some life.

“My parents, Christopher and Janey, did even more than me,” explained Virginia.

“Dad was an art teacher who taught David Hockney [important in the pop art movement of the sixties] and, although a workaholic, he was a wonderful painter and a lovely father who was great fun to be around.

“Mother was a dressmaker initially and worked all the time before becoming one of the most central figures of the fashion boom around that time.

“Both of my parents were career-driven and became professors at the Royal College of Arts, but I’ve never been that way really; all of my work was done on my own time, time when my son was either at school or in bed.”

Prior to her first book, Virginia began working life with Dame Shirley Williams as an assistant secretary for The Fabian Society in the early sixties before joining The Sunday Telegraph as a gossip columnist.

Life suddenly took an upward turn when the release of Chelsea Bird led her to the Daily Mail, where she spent several years as a rock columnist, just a slight deviation from gossip.

“That first book was very easy to write and I’d also done a feature for About Town at the beginning of the sixties,” continued Virginia.

“It was that which got me into journalism, the publicity from Chelsea Bird, and suddenly I’m writing the Mandrake Column for ST.

“When I joined the Mail, I really liked music; it was that period just before the Beatles.

“I loved Elvis and Roy Orbison, but the problem with the sixties is that I was the same as every other girl in their early twenties, I was frantically in love with these stars and always had wobbly knees.

“I was terrified when interviewing them and what I didn’t realise is that they were young themselves, so we were all terrified really.

“Most of my journalistic career though has been as an agony columnist, so been pretty sheltered really, but I’ve always ensured that my work was entertaining as well.

“I remember that, at one point, I was sending the same column to four different publications, until I got found out.”

Numerous columns and quite a few books later, including Janey and Me (2003) and The Virginia Monologues (2009), continued Virginia’s life journey. Then a decade ago, a chance encounter on a cruise ship with Nigel Planer (credits include The Young Ones, Carry On Columbus, Blackadder the Third, French & Saunders, and a couple of Terry Pratchett serialisations) led to something new.

“I was often invited to literary festivals and noticed that I could make people laugh whilst doing it,” she explained.

“What I was getting for it though wasn’t good enough and it was when I was on a cruise with Nigel Planer I got a bit bold and went and asked him if he would help turn my talk into a production.

“He watched my performance and although he didn’t warm to it originally his partner spoke to me and said not to worry, he’d get on board. . . and he did.

“The most terrifying thing I’ve ever done was performing that in front of just him.”

In 2009, Virginia began with an hour long, one woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Virginia Monologues: Why Being Sixty Is Great, then, between 2010 and 2015, she toured the one woman show Growing Old Disgracefully, a show about growing old.

“The title itself entices people in and it’s really difficult for a younger person to do this,” explained Virginia.

“My generation identifies with it a lot more and I talk about things that only older people will know, will find funny – memory and death, grandchildren and how to dress when old, ailments, and much more.

“I’ve not done it for a while now though and it was because of Ian Lavender (Private Pike in the iconic Dad’s Army and who also does a one-man show on the series) that I go to Bury St Edmunds now and I’m looking forward to it, although I am nervous as well.

“This all made me real though, a real person, and gave me a feeling of authenticity.”

* Virginia’s appearance is a Theatre Royal Friends Committee fund-raising event in support of the Theatre Royal

Virginia Ironside’s Growing Old Disgracefully, October 14, Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds. Call 01284 769505 or visit theatreroyal.org