Dame Penelope Keith's Commitment to Military Families
Dame Penelope Keith, who was made a dame in 2014 for services to the arts and to charity, readily agreed to become patron of readingforce.org.uk, an organisation that connects military families through shared reading. Her much-celebrated voice was initially overwhelming, but what quickly shone through was her commitment to the practical: “What can I do to help?”
Event in Aldershot
Last November, she and the broadcaster Janet Ellis delivered a programme of war writing in Aldershot. Dame Penelope pored over suggestions from the war poetry scholar Jane Potter and me, offering additions she had “accumulated”. A memorable item from the mother of her close friend the actor John Warner went to him with Epsom Salts to avoid “faulty elimination of bowels”.
Pay-off and Legacy
The pay-off was immaculate: “Several of those present in the minesweepers on D-day have made it clear that the last thing they needed was a dose of salts.”
