So, Dame Vera Lynn hit 100 ‘not out’ this week and, in recognition of that, here is a limerick that I penned a few years ago along with some recycled verbiage to go along with it …
I suspect that nowadays only a few people will know of more than two Vera Lynn songs: “We’ll meet again” and “The White Cliffs of Dover”. The latter wistfully imagined bluebirds soaring and sweeping dreamily over the white cliffs of Dover. In fact, the song’s author was an American that had never visited the UK and, as pedants of the world will tell you, neither had the bluebirds! And this is my take on how the cliffs got their name:
The song says that birds will be over
Some cliffs by the sea and, moreover,
I’ll tell you outright
It’s all the bird sh*te
That makes them the ‘white’ cliffs of Dover!
