Jean Collen

JEAN COLLEN began her singing studies with the famous British duettists Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, when she was seventeen. Two years later they asked her to act as studio accompanist for Webster, when Anne - who usually accompanied their students - had other commitments. Jean completed the ATCL and LTCL singing diplomas with Anne and Webster and remained friends with them until their deaths. Jean appeared in concerts, musicals and operas in South Africa and the UK and taught singing and piano. She recently retired as musical director at a local Anglican Church after thirteen years. Currently she teaches singing and piano in her Johannesburg studio. PAMELA DAVIES first heard Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth singing on the radio in 1944 when she was a teenage evacuee from London. She took an immediate liking to their voices and became their firm fan, listening to their singing on the radio and attending many of their concerts, films, and the musical play in which they starred in 1945, entitled "Sweet Yesterday". She obtained their autographs at one of these concerts and had a brief conversation with Webster. In 1956 Anne and Webster moved to South Africa for twenty-two years, but Pamela never forgot them. When she heard that they had returned to the UK in 1978 she wrote a letter of appreciation to them. This was the beginning of her correspondence with Anne. Pamela and her husband, Walter attended Webster Booth’s Memorial Service at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, which led to them taking Anne out to lunch whenever they were in the North Wales area, and the growth of their friendship with Anne. "Do You Remember Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth?" is an account of Pamela’s journey from an awe-struck teenage admirer of Anne and Webster’s singing to her eventual warm friendship with Anne. "On Wings of Song" is an omnibus of the above two books for those who would like to have the books in one volume.