Sunday, August 31, 2008

Forgotten Authors No 4 / Lady Cynthia Asquith

Lady Cynthia Asquith: Diaries, 1915-1918: Books - Amazon.ca


Forgotten Authors

No 4 

Lady Cynthia Asquith


Christopher Fowler
Sunday 31 August 2008


Female authors seem to excel at cruel stories with emotional and possibly supernatural tints, using apparitions, fears and forebodings to indicate heightened states of unspoken emotional distress. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, a wife, possibly suffering from post-natal depression descends, into madness after being quarantined by her husband and doctor, with nothing to do except stare at the increasingly disturbing patterns in her bedroom wallpaper. The story was used by a generation of feminists to condemn marital inequalities, and is regarded as a classic. But there are many whose names have lapsed from familiarity.
Lady Cynthia Asquith was the daughter-in-law of the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, and belonged to the literary aristocracy. As well as writing novels and ghost stories, she was an important anthologist and the editor of a series of popular collections. A friend to both D H Lawrence and L P Hartley, she also spent two decades working for J M Barrie. She used her powerful literary connections to persuade an astonishing array of big names into her anthologies, many of which have never been bettered.
Asquith was a storyteller in her own right, and produced a series of fantasies with the ring of truth, collected in a number of volumes, the best being 'This Mortal Coil' – nine tales of spectral vengeance and unease in high Victorian style. Her stories conjure up a world of things unnamed and half in shadow, where the past is never far from the present. Typically, in "The Playfellow", a lonely child adopts a malevolent invisible companion who may be more real than anyone imagines.
As the 20th century progressed and private subjects could be dissected on daytime TV shows, there was suddenly no need for this kind of soft-spoken fiction, where the cruelties of men were visited on women in such a stealthy, unwholesome fashion that heroines were often driven mad. Mental instability and hysteria are seen as signs of weakness, and our female characters are stronger now. Paradoxically, Asquith is best remembered for her non-fiction on the female members of the royal family – strong women almost to a fault. 

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Forgotten Authors No 3 / Peter Van Greenaway

Amazon.com: The Judas Gospel: Peter Van Greenaway: Books

Forgotten Authors

No 3

Peter van Greenaway

Christopher Fowley
Sunday 24 August 2008

No, not the director of The Draughtsman's Contract. This author was a lawyer-turned-novelist who wrote popular fiction in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, producing at least 20 thrillers and volumes of short stories that were by turns topical, political, satirical, hilarious and rather mysterious. When he died in 1988 it seemed that his books died with him, which is a shame because, at his best, he wrote popular fiction with a rare passion and erudition.
I first came across him in The Destiny Man, which tells the tale of a washed-up actor who discovers a hitherto unheard-of Shakespeare folio on a tube train. There is a crime involved, but the novel's impetus derives from seeing if the hero – who has wangled sole rights to the play's performance – can redeem himself by rising to the role's challenge. Van Greenaway even has the nerve to create chunks of the bard's missing play from scratch, and does it with panache.
More seriously, attempts by individuals to alter world events and end terrorism were a recurring theme in Van Greenaway's political thrillers. Suffer! Little Children, published in 1976, concerns efforts to stop the unrest in Northern Ireland, but Take the War to Washington took the subject to an uncomfortably prescient level, as it involves a group of Vietnam veterans who crash a passenger airliner into the Pentagon and launch a series of terrorist attacks on tall buildings in the US. Conversely, The Man Who Held the Queen to Ransom and Sent Parliament Packing, (1968), is about a very British Victorian coup, and is played lightly for laughs.
Van Greenaway was popular enough to see his books packaged as lurid mass-market paperbacks, and his style would have been well-suited to movie adaptations, but just one film version of his work made it into cinemas. In his suspense novel The Medusa Touch (1973), an author with a "gift for disaster" hovers in a state between life and death, while flashbacks reveal that he can remove people who stand in his way with the power of thought alone. Van Greenaway turns his hero's ability to cause telekinetic catastrophes into a powerful moral tool that reflects the anti-establishment mood of the times. The overwrought film version starred Richard Burton (pictured above), and has become a forgotten minor classic.
Van Greenaway's peculiar talents were suited to the period in which he wrote, but transcended them, so that the books still read very enjoyably, if you can find them.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Forgotten authors No 2 / Geoffrey Willans




Forgotten authors

 No 2 

Geoffrey Willans


Christopher Fowler
Sunday 17 August 2008 00:00

Here's an example of an author who is not quite forgotten, so much as placed on the wrong shelf. The best of his charming adult books is 'My Uncle Harry', a Pooterish study of the British Clubman. Harry prides himself on his club tie, his stiff white collar, his rolled umbrella and his complete lack of imagination.
However, it was Willans's collaboration with the rococo artist Ronald Searle that was to propel him into the blazer pocket of every British schoolboy. Nigel Molesworth, the Curse of St Custard's (pictured below), rocketed to fame in four lunatic children's books, starting with 'Down With Skool!' With chapters on how to avoid lessons and how to torture parents, it mainly caused outrage because of its deliberately awful spelling, and was regarded as a bad example to set before children.
The second diary, 'How To Be Topp', scales the heights of the surreal. A new term begins; "No more dolies of William the bear to cuddle and hug, no more fairy stories at nanny's knee it is all aboard the fairy bus for the dungeons." New boy Eustace is trussed to a chair and gagged with socks. His mother rings up and is reassured. "Eustace mater ring off very relieved cheers cheers and telephone all the other lades about it. An owl hoot and Eustace is insensible. St Custards hav begun another term." The roster of pupils includes the "uterly wet" Fotheringtom-Thomas, "skipping like a girlie", and Grabber, "skool captane and winer of the mrs joyful prize for rafia work".
Willans's catchphrases such as "chiz", "enuff said" and "as any fule kno" have passed into the English language, but the books were designed to be enjoyed by generations of kids rather than preserved as adult classics – as any fule kno.


Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Joss Stone 'recording Barack Obama campaign song'



Joss Stone joins a long list of stars queuing up to be associated with the phenomenon dubbed 'Obamania'


Joss Stone 'recording Barack Obama campaign song'

British soul singer Joss Stone is reported to have begun working on a campaign song for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Devon-born Stone is said to have taken to her recording studio to ensure the song is ready for November's election battle between democratic candidate Mr Obama and his republican rival John McCain.
Mr Obama, 47, is apparently a big fan of the 21-year-old's work and is hoping her style will strike a chord with both black and white voters in America.
Miss Stone is already a household name in the US, where she spends up to nine months each year.
"Joss is a big supporter of Barack Obama and was very excited to be asked to do this for him," a source said.
"He sent a personal message asking her to get on board.
"He has always admired her music and thinks she is the perfect choice because of her unique appeal to black and white voters.
"She believes he is going to be the first black American president and she is honoured to be a part of that."
She joins a long list of American stars queuing up to be associated with the phenomenon dubbed "Obamania".
Film star George Clooney has thrown this considerable weight behind him, while R'n'B artist Alicia Keys and hip hop singer Jay-Z have dedicated songs to him.

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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Joss Stone set for royal role in The Tudors




Joss Stone set for royal role in The Tudors


Singer Joss Stone is to play Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII, in the racy historical drama The Tudors.

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
The 21-year-old will appear opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers' as the king in season three of the Emmy Award-winning TV show, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Joss Stone
Joss Stone will play Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife
It is her first TV role, although she did recently grace the small screen as the Cadbury's Flake girl. Stone is keen to establish an acting career and made her debut in 2006 fantasy film Eragon. Her first starring role, in British film Snappers, hits cinemas later this year.
When it comes to the wives of Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves is the least glamorous of them all.
Henry chose her on the strength of a portrait – but was horrified to discover that she was much uglier in the flesh, and famously referred to her as the "Flanders mare".
The marriage went ahead in January 1540 but was annulled, much to Henry's delight, six months later.
They remained on good terms – unlike Henry and his next wife, Catherine Howard, who was executed for treason.
Stone will begin filming her role later this year.
The Tudors is currently in its second series and has been criticised for its lack of historical accuracy.
But Rhys Meyers has defended the show, saying in a recent interview: "We're not making a documentary for universities."
His Henry VIII is a sex-mad young royal, a far cry from the traditional portrayal. The actor insisted: "Having actors with an appealing look is what an audience demands today – especially when there's quite a bit of sexual activity involved."
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Saturday, August 2, 2008

Life and style / Emily Watson / Everything is in there


Emily Watson

LIFE AND STYLE

Q&A

Emily Watson
Actress
"If I had to get rid of everything else, I'd keep the complete works of Shakespeare. Everything is in there."


Interview by Rosanna Greenstreet
Saturday 2 August 2008 00.01 BST

Emily Watson, 41, was born in London. Her father was an architect, her mother a teacher. After studying English at Bristol University, she went to drama school. In 1996, she starred in Lars von Trier's Breaking The Waves, which gained her an Oscar nomination - she was also nominated for her portrayal of cellist Jacqueline du Pré in the 1998 movie Hilary And Jackie. Her other films include Angela's Ashes, Gosford Park, The Proposition and The Water Horse, now out on DVD. She is married to actor/writer Jack Waters, lives in London and is expecting her second child.




When were you happiest?
About half an hour ago, watching through the window as my dad and two-year-old daughter walked to the paper shop together.
What is your greatest fear?
Wild animals. I only discovered this when in close proximity to lions in the dark. I was on safari in Kruger national park in South Africa. Despite the assurances of our guide that they didn't know we were there, I felt I was on the verge of a very nasty end.
What is your earliest memory?
The garden at my grandmother's cottage in Dorset.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Selfishness. In my job, it's very easy to get used to being the centre of attention.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
Forgetting to wear deodorant to an awards show. I was boiling and incredibly nervous in a strapless dress with my arms clamped to my sides, until some kind soul decided to introduce me to the cast of Friends, who all wanted to shake my hand.

What is your most treasured possession?
My bed. When you travel as much as I do, the sense of sleeping in one's own bed is like nothing else.
Where would you like to live?
If New Zealand wasn't so far away, I'd live there like a shot.
Aside from a property, what's the most expensive thing you've bought?
Pound for pound, a truffle. I think it cost about £100, but we kept the label which says something like £2,000 a kilo.
What would your super power be?
To be able to skip long journeys and just beam the whole family up to the next gig.
What makes you depressed?
Rudeness.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Right now, I'm pregnant and growing visibly, which I am rather enjoying. Usually I have a constant battle with weight.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
Samantha Morton, of course.
What is your favourite smell?
Fresh mango, I think.

What is your favourite book?

If I had to get rid of everything else, I'd keep the complete works of Shakespeare. Everything is in there.

What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?
A director once told me I had anorexia of the imagination.
Is it better to give or to receive?
Is this a personality test? I hope I fail.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Cake.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My husband, of course.
What was the best kiss of your life?
Absolutely none of your business.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I say 'brilliant' a lot and I probably don't mean it.
What is the worst job you've done?
Photocopying.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
The England football team - they never fail to disappoint.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Less worrying.
When did you last cry, and why?
I burned the carrots yesterday.

How do you relax?

Reading

What is the closest you've come to death?
As a child, I was saved by a neighbour from falling builders' rubble.
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
More time.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I'm pretty proud of some of my work in film.
What keeps you awake at night?
My child.
How would you like to be remembered?
Fondly.