This is a somewhat obscure fact to put before a UK audience, and I must admit that the name was new to me in January 2019. But as soon as I heard it, my first thought was that this had to be the inspiration behind the names of Asterix and all his friends – particularly Getafix, the village druid.
Asterix was translated ito English by Anthea Bell, who was the sister of the television journalist and erstwhile Member of Parliament, Martin Bell. She it was who translated Idéfix into Dogmatix, and Panoramix into Getafix (among many others).
Anthea Bell died in 2018, aged 82. The Guardian's obituary noted that "The eighth adventure in the comic book series about everyone's favourite Gaul rested on a French view of the English that was not directly translatable, involving warm beer, rugby louts and tea. A whole strand of humour rested on the English inability to tell tu from vous, while the bowler hat did not lend itself to fruity puns in quite the same way as the chapeau melon.
"So Bell transported the story to a Wodehousian England with much: 'I say, jolly good, old fellow, what!' And though she herself was never very satisfied with the result, René Goscinny, co–creator of Asterix, was overheard muttering to himself, 'Ah, vieux fruit. I wish I'd thought of that one!'"
© Haydn Thompson 2019