I’ve written 1,773 words on Sydney’s pre-war experience as a conjurer.
This is the opening of “Sydney, 1918-1940”:
In the carefully constructed origin story of The Piddingtons, Sydney’s previous experience as a magician simply disappeared.
The couple’s official biography, published at the peak of their career in 1950, reduced his pre-war experience as a conjurer to just 38 words. It said he had “as a schoolboy, practised conjuring.” Asked whether he was any good, Sydney replied: “No, not very. I haven’t done anything since I was at school.”
Readers were then told that his “limited knowledge of ‘magic’” failed him after only a few months in Changi.