That night we came within a whisker of being formally introduced to the Governor of Western Australia. We had Geoff to thank for this. As Dean of the W.A. Academy for the Performing Arts and member of the executive committees of most of the performing arts companies in town, Geoff Gibbs – Dr Gibbs – spent a sizeable portion of his life in a dinner suit, attending first nights. That night’s first night was balletic, and although I had long ago taken a sacred vow that ballet and my free evenings should never mix, I knew it would have been foolish to pass up the opportunity of seeing how cultured Perth society behaved in the presence of the Governor.

It was, of course, a black tie affair, which put some strain on the resources of my traveller’s wardrobe. But it was my intention to keep in the background anyway, since I’d never been good with governors, so I found an obscure niche half-way up the foyer stairs and pretended to be absorbed in my programme.

I pretty soon felt as if I was in the North of England. It’s a queer thing about dress suits but they always perform the opposite function to that which is required of them: they unfailingly make the men inside them look like hayseeds. And the women, too, in their frothy evening frocks and stoles, looked dressed for an engagement party in Huddersfield. Only Geoff Gibbs moved through the sparse throng with anything like an international theatre-goer’s aplomb. From above the top of my programme I watched him – overfed and rosy and mischievous, like a fallen cherub – charming a better deal for the arts out of the relevant Minister, whispering theatrical anecdotes just the right side of naughtiness to dentists’ wives from Mount Pleasant wearing scarlet tango dresses.

Inside the auditorium the ballet could not begin until the Governor had made his official entry. We all stood while a drum rolled and the Governor took his place, bowing unostentatiously to those around him. Then we all stood a little longer until a scratchy record playing at about 22½ r.p.m. had got through ‘Advance, Australia Fair.’