Olivia Read Free Page B

forward to attending my concerts might be so disappointed that they will look at the reason I cancelled and try to do something about the slaughter of dolphins in their country.’
    The Japanese fishermen claimed that the dolphins were eating too many fish, reducing the size of their catches and therefore their income. But Olivia was by then the most popular singer, male or female, in Japan and so her threat had precisely the impact she hoped for. The slaughter ceased and Olivia’s threat was rescinded. It was a resounding victory for the singer and made her realise just what she could achieve on behalf of God’s defenceless creatures.
    While Olivia was growing up, Brin and Irene proved to be loving but firm parents. Irene was meticulous about tidiness and cleanliness and brought the family up on health foods long before it was fashionable - yoghurt, sour cream, and a plentiful supply of fruit and vegetables were staple fare. None of the children was allowed comics, and they learned that work came first, and only when it was done was there time for pleasure. It was a work ethic instilled into Olivia at an early age and that stayed with her throughout her life.
    On her recent trip to Wales to find out more about her father’s family, Olivia’s visit to the Canton High School in Cardiff provided her with a clearer understanding as to why her father imposed boundaries of behaviour upon his children. The school her father attended is now Chapter Arts Centre, and enough of the original architecture remained for Olivia to see that there used to be separate entrances for boys and girls. And, in records kept by a former pupil, it emerged that using the wrong entrance or walking past litter and not picking it up was punishable by a caning. ‘So that’s why he was a disciplinarian,’ said Olivia of her father as she was shown round her dad’s old classroom.
    Tall and slim, there was an imposing, aristocratic air about Brin that warranted respect, and Olivia says she was even quite frightened of her father when she was a child, particularly when she’d be daydreaming and he suddenly called out to her with his penetrating voice. Nonetheless, he was a tremendous source of security.
    Olivia was ten when her world was shaken to its foundations by the break-up of her parents’ marriage and subsequent divorce. It not only had an immediate and profound impact upon her, but it scarred her for life and had a major bearing on her attitude towards marriage and commitment in relationships for decades to come.
    Six years after her parents’ divorce, her sister Rona was divorced as well and Olivia said many years later: ‘It left me afraid of marriage because I’d seen so much divorce. There’s hardly a member of my family who hasn’t been through it and I guess I’ve been affected by all that. If you’ve never seen a relationship that lasts for ever, you tend to believe it’s not possible.’
    In years to come, Olivia would come close to marriage more than once but she was always fearful of such a step and only finally married at the age of thirty-six. ‘Of course nobody ever wants divorce to happen to them,’ she explained, ‘but I became a bit hung up on it. I was so determined to make the right choice in marriage.’
    As her fame grew throughout her twenties and early thirties, Olivia gave countless interviews to the press and it was a rare interviewer who did not ask her when she was going to get married and settle down. Olivia never ducked the question and generally cited her parents’ divorce as the reason why she was remaining resolutely single.
    Olivia was very close to her father and she suffered a tremendous sense of loss when it became clear that her parents could no longer go on living together and that their marriage was coming to an end. ‘I can still remember the terrible shock I felt when my father said he was moving away,’ she recalled in a recent interview. ‘He was very upset when he told me.’
    The shock