5 comments about Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage.

1. Having read a lot of books about the royals, I didn't know if I wanted to read another. I'm very glad I read this one. Enjoyed how it was written. Very witty remarks, a lot of them in parenthesis. Having the book notes at the bottom of the various pages was a great help. One can't help but read them. There was alot of info that I had read before, but Mr Brandreth gave a more balanced view. It was a fun read!



2. one of the most beautiful biographies i have ever read . it reavels the humaneterian side of queen elizabith and prince philip . they are like us they love and hate like every ordinary person . mr brandreth is great .do not miss this book



3. This is not just a book about the marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip-it is a story of their lives both before and after their marriage in-in sections.
   
   First Section: details about their early lives and details surrounding their parents and grandparents.
   
   First was Elizabeth growining up in England-with her parents the Duke and Duchess of York and then after Edward VIII abdicated King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
   
   Second was Philip born a Greek and Danish Prince but shortly after his birth his family was forced to move to France to live near his uncle George and Aunt Marie.
   
   Second Section: Details their lives as teenagers around the time of WWII
   Elizabeth was forced to live apart from her parents and was sent to live with her sister outside of London. After the war the family was reunited and at 13 Elizabeth met Philip for the first time
   
   Philip lived in France for several years before his mother was institutionalized and his father ran off with his mistress. His sisters help raise him and then sent him to schools in Germany, and England. During the War he was a Navey Man where at 18 he met 13 year old Elizabeth.
   
   The Next several Sections detail their courtship, marriage, becomeing first time parents to Charles and Anne, becoming Queen and Consort and then having Andrew and Edward afterward.
   
   An interesting book with interviews from Prince Philip, Elizabeth's cousin and others that give a detailed account of two interesting people.



4. I became interested in reading more about the life of the Queen and her husband after seeing "Windsor Castle: A Royal Year." Prince Philip is the star of one of the hours of that multi-part documentary. He came across as a down-to-earth man of many interests about whom I wanted to learn more. I purchased this book mainly interested in it as a biography of Prince Philip.
   
   Prince Philip of Greece had a difficult early life. He was the youngest son of Prince Andrea of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenburg/Milford-Haven. His three older sister all married German nobles. The Greek royal family was subject to on-again off-again exile. His parents were separated after their exile. Not having any Greek ancestry, the Greek royal family was in a precarious position in the early part of the twentieth century. Philip had no fixed permanent residence for much of his life before marrying Princess Elizabeth. As a great great grandson of Queen Victoria, he is 550th or so in line for the British monarchy himself. Philip lived with various relatives and went to school in Germany and later Gordonstoun in Scotland. He served in the British Navy and famously was first photographed with Princess Elizabeth at the Royal Naval College. At the Battle of Cape Matapan Philip was manning a searchlight and had the good fortune to illuminate an Italian (enemy) ship resulting in devastating fire being directed at that ship.
   
   Philip and Elizabeth were married in 1947. Elizabeth became Queen upon the death of her father five years later. Philip duties in supporting the Queen have involved endless ceremonial events and public appearances for over sixty years, and continues to maintain a full schedule of public functions into his late eighties.
   
   Author Brandeth take pains to dismiss all claims of Philip's famously alleged infidelity as untrue both by reason of his loyalty to the Queen and by virtue of logistic impossibility. He even explains Philip's absence from the Queen's bed early in the morning on July 9, 1982 when a deranged man sneaked into Buckingham Palace. The lunatic sat on the Queens bed talking to her until she was able to summon her guard. The man later admitted that he intended to commit suicide in the Queen's presence. Brandeth explains that Philip and the Queen normally share the same bed but on that morning Philip slept alone having travel plans that would require him to get up unusually early.
   
   Brandeth places most of the blame for the difficult relationship between Diana and the Royal couple on poor communication and especially to the immature and emotionally unstable Diana. Many very sensitive matters were discussed in letters rather than face-to-face leading to misunderstandings and later causing great embarrassment when those letters got into the hands of the press. Maintaining some privacy while living in the fishbowl of Palace life has been a matter of obsession for the Queen and Philip. Courtiers that have discussed royal personal business or, even worse, written books about the Royals have been completely cut off. The author recalls how the Queen broke off all contact with her much loved governess "Crawfie" after that servant wrote a tell-all book about the Queen's childhood in 1950s. It was to avoid unwanted public disclosure that the 2003 Burrell trial was halted. Paul Burrell, Diana's butler was charged with stealing and selling some of the late Lady Di's personal effects. Just as the trial was about to begin, the Queen remembered a conversation with the valet in which he told her that he holding on to some of Diana's possession for safekeeping.
   
   The author describes himself as a friend of Prince Philip's. While this account can not be considered an authorized biography, the author does include the Prince's wry reaction to various controversies that have surfaced during his long life. On the other hand the Queen remains a distant aloof figure in this biography. Like the aforementioned documentary, where Philip talks directly to the camera about his duties as Ranger of Windsor Park, this book gives a rare look at otherwise inscrutable Prince Philip explaining himself in his own words.
   
   Highly recommended.



5. This was a gift, & the recipient tells me they are really enjoying it & that it is much better written than many similar books on the subject (& she reads them all!).

1 comments about Lilla's Feast.

1. Lilla's Feast" describes a time not so very long ago that seems impossibly distant. The world-wide expansion of European colonialism in the 19th century caused thousands of people, especially British, to seek their fortunes in the colonies and the trading emporiums in the exotic East, especially India and China. Lilla, the great-grandmother of the author was one of them. She was born in Chefoo, China in 1882 and spent most of her life in China or India.
   
   Lilla never did anything of great importance, but she stands for all the Brits born and raised abroad who felt a bit foreign when they returned "home" to England on visits. During the course of her 100-year life Lilla was present during the peak of Western power and prestige in the Orient before 1900 and its rapid decline thereafter culminating in World War II in which Lilla and her family ended up in a Japanese concentration camp.
   
   We follow Lilla through marriages, births,deaths, family troubles in India and China, the hardships of Weihsien internee camp in China during World War II, and finally back to an uneasy old age in England -- the money, power, and prestige of life as a privileged Westener in China now gone. It's a good story to be read about a class of people who saw their pleasant lives and lucrative livelihoods destroyed by war and politics. We don't feel all that sorry for Lilla, nor even that fond of her, but we are interested in her experiences. Along the way we get some fascinating pictures of the life of Brits in China -- and especially the hardships of Weihsien, a concentration camp that has catalyzed a sizeable body of literature. See "The Call" by John Hersey, a novel about a missionary who is interned in Weihsien and "Shantung Compound" by Lawrence Gilkey, a sociological classic about people under the stress of imprisonment.
   
   Smallchief

2 comments about Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom.

1. The story of Nora and James Joyce's unconventional relationship and how it shaped the writings of one of history's most controversial authors. This book is nothing short of riveting, both in terms of the story it is telling and the way it is told. It explores the influence Nora held over Joyce in his life and his writing and gives countless examples of how he used the experiences of those around him in his books. More than anything, this is the story of a woman struggling to hold her life and her family together in the face of hardship after hardship. A truly incredible read that I couldn't put down until the last page - I even read the bibliography!



2. This is the perfect companion to Richard Ellmans bio of JJ. I first read it when it came out a few years ago and I found it to be a good "other side of the story". Much has been made of Joyce's letters to his wife and of her being the model for Molly Bloom. He must have been a happy man if that was the case. She was all woman.

2 comments about Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography.

1. Matthew Sturgis' biography of the short-lived pen and ink master of black and white imagery provides an informative and elegantly written life of Art Noveau figure Aubrey Beardsley. Discussions of Beardsley's early years, meetings with famous figures like Oscar Wilde and James Whistler, Yellow Book fame, and last years full of physical decline are covered with intelligent attention to detail. Also included are several reproductions of Beardsley's illustrations and the critical response to them. The book is a fast read that is accessible to those not overly familiar with the man and the period, and is also interesting to the fin-de-siecle conoisseur.



2. Among the myriad biographies on Aubrey Beardsley, I have to say that this one stands out. Thorough, in depth and a quick read, it covers his life, work and complex personality perfectly. Although I have enjoyed immensely many other books about the man, I feel that this one provides a great starting point. From Beardsley's birth in Brighton to his untimely death in Menton, his tragic story is told with warmth, pathos and the great knowledge of a man clearly admiring of his subject. This book will open your eyes to new and startling truths about Beardsley and his work, if you have been convinced that his life was one of wanton decadence and sexual excess. What a surprise to learn that this clearly was not the case - rather, Beardsley was a most conservative man. I have for many years admired him and his work greatly, and am personally very thankful that Sturgis wrote this book.
   For those more interested in a review of Beardsley's work, I'd suggest Chris Snodgrass' book, Aubrey Beardsley, Dandy of the Grotesque. It stands as a perfect companion to Sturgis' biography.

2 comments about William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (Oxford Paperbacks).

1. Schoenbaum's book, which I have used to teach college courses for years, is rigorous and objective in its scholarship. He succeeds in separating the legend from the fact, and gives us the best possible view of the notoriously elusive "man who was Shakespeare." The text is eminently readable, and irresistably interesting.



2. I was a personal friend of Sam's in fact a neighbor of his in Maryland for 6 years. I spoke with him a week before he passed away and he was telling me that Shakespeare's Identity was still an elusive subject for him and other scholars. He felt that his book ,William Shakespeare : A Compact Documentary Life, a lifelong pursuit was a good primer for beginners but that he felt incomplete about it and wished he had another life to make changes. This I found powerful as he was willing to be open about this and not be stuck in being an expert. Although his research in this book carries influence as authoritarian on Shakespeare's life , Sam up till the end of his life was convinced there had to be more. His publisher of course was unwilling to consider a new revised edition. But one thing Sam stressed over and over in the book as well that it was important for teachers who used his research to be careful in not telling students this was the absolute Gospel on Shakespeare's life.

1 comments about King George V.

1. Kenneth Rose is an excellent scholar and this book is about scholarship--debunking the myths and telling the straight story about King George V and the politicians with whom he dealth. My only wish is that I could know more about George V the man, but this is the same objection that I've had of all scholarly biographers of Kings.

4 comments about Baden-Powell.

1. Actually the full title of this book is Baden-Powell, The Boy-Man. This is a well researched but dry treastie of the founder of Scouting. You get the strong sense that Juel knows very little of Scouting and was writing the book more from the point of having been a fellow military officer. What is sad however is that Juel seems to be taking part in a relatively recent phenomenon in our culture to shatter our hero figures. We now know George Washington did not really cut down the Cherry tree and Abe Lincoln was manic depressive. Juel want's everyone to know that B-P had his faults as well. In much the same vein that some historian muckrakers spend their time in an effort at character assination, Juel has devoted the thrust of his effort into a character assination of B-P. Anyone who is interested in Baden-Powell could find many other books in print that are far more readable than this one (Green Bar Bill Hillcourt's Two Lives of a Hero comes to mind and it is available right here on Amazon). Despite its relatively recent release the book flopped and was quickly discontinued, Scouters would not waste time or money reading it, scout shops would not carry it, and it is, after all, a dull and uninspired effort at best. The Boy Man & the Character Factory (by Rosenthal) are two B-P Books Scouters would do well to skip.



2. Tim Jeal was given unrestricted access to the unrivalled family archive by the great-nephew Mr. Francis Baden-Powell. There are many pictures in this book that cannot be found anywhere else. Tim Jeal spent five years of research prior to writing this book. There are FIVE pages of acknowledgements which include, British Scout Association, Mr. J L Tarr (Chief Scout Executive of BSA) and numerous other sources. Mr Jeal was born in 1945. He attended Westminster School and Christ Church in Oxford. His previous biography of David Livingstone was honored by the literary editors of The New York Times and the Washington Post. He lives in north London with his wife and three daughters. Tim Jeal was cognizant of the gap that existed in Lord Baden-Powell's not having a full and objective biography. He spent five years on research. He was able to obtain unique access to people who knew Baden-Powell and to a huge amount of unstudied private papers of Lord Baden-Powell. This is an EXCELLENT book and the many references from Baden-Powell's Diaries and Letters give candid and honest information that cannot be found anywhere else. A must read for those who are interested in having access to information not normally available and making up their own minds.



3. An excellent read. I was impressed at the volume of information Jeal had at his disposal in researching the book. With all the references he had I cannot but think that this book IS the definitive history of Baden-Powell. Yes the book does raise some controversial questions about Baden-Powell but Jeal does not attempt to label Baden-Powell in any way; instead presenting to the reader facts from people close to Baden-Powell including extracts from Baden-Powells own diaries. The reader can draw their own conclusions. I found Jeals book to be an excellent read and an wonderful insight into the life and culture that existed during Baden-Powells life, and in particular, his army career. The worldwide Scouting movement owes Baden-Powell so much and I think every scout leader should read this book. I did!



4. About a quarter of the way through this book, I was ready to toss it. I am glad I didn't. It suffers at times from mind-numbing detail and Jeal occasionally assumes knowledge I doubt most readers possess (particularly 19th century British military minutia). The pace is very slow through most of the book - not surprising considering the volume of information covered. And I do NOT recommend it as a first book on Baden-Powell! Tackle Russell Freedman's much more readable "Scouting With Baden-Powell" or spend a week with William "green Bar Bill" Hillcourt's long but less-scholarly "Baden-Powell The Two Lives of a Hero" (written with Olave Baden-Powell, the General's wife). But the reader looking for the most comprehensive and balanced treatment of Lord R.S.S. Baden-Powell should read this book. I have a much better feeling for and understanding of BP as result of reading this book.
   
   The text is primarily chronological. However, when dealing with specific aspects in Baden-Powell's life, he sometimes discusses issues and recounts all the related incidents, which can be somewhat confusing because it interrupts the chronological flow. I found myself having to stop reading to put these "breakout" incidents into chronological synchronization with things already discussed.
   
   The illustrations and photos are excellent. The photographs are grouped into three sections on higher quality paper. They will make little sense until you read the text referring to them. I really love BP's illustrations! They are sprinkled throughout the book (and in the original hardback edition called "The Boy-Man", are on the inside covers). The footnotes are copious but very difficult to use, numbered by section, not chapter, all at the end rather than at the foot of the pages and without referring page numbers, and many referring to documents by a code name which is keyed in a bibliographic section. The index was only marginally useful, rather short for such a large book, and limited in scope. I feel as though Jeal could have made this the seven-volume "Compleat Life Of Baden-Powell" had he wished. At times, while reading this book, I wished he had (and at other times this thought sent chills down my spine).
   
   The thing that put me off was Jeal's amateur psycho-analysis of the inner "Stephe". This permeates the book and distracts from the narrative. Perhaps in reaction to the slanderous assertions of other biographers, Jeal asserts that BP was a repressed homosexual. I found most of his arguments unpersuasive and reject this suggestion. He also implied that many Guide leaders were lesbians. Since his evidence of this was sketchy at best, I found it distracting. Yet he did not go into detail about the trials of Oscar Wilde and the resulting intolerance of homosexuality, which is important to the context of this issue. Another example of this unfortunate tendency of pseudo-psychology is in the epilogue ("Curbing the Beast and Reclaiming the Child"). Jeal suddenly begins discussing a darker side of Baden-Powell that was barely hinted at in the rest of the book. He attributes this darker BP to repressed childhood anger and a "lost childhood". It felt as if this was added on in the epilogue because he needed to say something about it and had neglected it through the rest of the text. These forays into psychology are the greatest weakness of this book.
   
   Jeal's discussion of the Seige of Mafeking is nuanced. His treatment of Baden-Powell is obviously sympathetic, yet he also wants to show BP "warts and all." Jeal digs into the letters and diaries of not only Baden-Powell and his family, but even BP's officers and their families. As the book goes on, he relies more and more on interviews with people who were there, which gives the text a ring of authenticity that I did not find in other BP biographies. (For instance, he lists the inhabitants of Outspan in BP's last days as a result of an interview with one of the employees.)
   
   In the later sections of the book, the detail is again dense and Jeal returns to psycho-analysis, but it does not (to me) seem as heavy-handed as in the beginning of the book (until the epilogue). I had not appreciated the conflicts and fitful starts of the early Scouting movement, and the power struggles that nearly wrecked it. I was dredfully ignorant of his home life and last years. I think Jeal was harsh with the two primary women in BP's life: his mother and wife. He paints both of them as unscrupulously domineering and cold. But his treatment of the end of BP's life is poignant and tender.
   
   He addresses issues raised by other biographers and explains how he believes they are wrong based on documents and interviews in the five years he worked on this massive tome. I found this very interesting, but would rather have these things dealt with in their own chapter near the end, rather than scattered through the text. An example of this is his treatments of militarism in the early years of the movement and BP's opinions of the Fascist leaders Mussolini and Hitler.
   
   The question of militarism could have been better addressed. The concerns and fears that the youth of the British Empire were weak and needed character building were concerns and fears felt around the world at that time. There were other similar organizations rising around the world at the same time. Jeal did not address the massive changes around the world from 1850 to 1950. The world had turned on its head economically (the rise of the middle classes and rich merchant barons, and the reaping of colonial economies), industrially (invention and commercialization of automobiles, airplanes, etc.), religiously ("Awakenings", new religious movements such as Mormonism, Christian Science, and the Salvation Army, and wide-spread atheism), politically (National Socialism and Communism) - in nearly every way. People were grasping for something larger than themselves to save them from being lost in the changing world. Jeal could have done more to place the events, particularly after the founding of the movement, into a context larger than the British Empire. He relates the world-wide travels of BP, but (with exception of the US) does not go into much detail on BP's relationships with Scouting organizations in other countries.
   
   My conclusion from this book is that Baden-Powell was an ordinary man upon whom was thrust greatness. The picture that emerges is a complex man. BP was a social climber, not a good student, at times flighty, and a bit of a clown. He would take others' ideas to enrich his own. He was not above stretching the truth if it would make a better yarn around the campfire (or in a book). He was a man with feet of clay. He was an idealist. His concern for young people was quite genuine. He tried his best to be the role model for the movement. He created the greatest youth movement ever seen, almost without wanting to. He breathed into it the Soul of Scouting, which carried it around the world. He indeed did his best to do his duty to his country and all the Scouts of the world.

3 comments about A Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne Jones, Agnes Poynter, and Louisa Baldwin.

1. Ms. Flanders' previous work, Inside the Victorian Home, was as delightful as it was informative. That's why A Circle of Sisters is such a letdown- its informative alright, if you care about a group of self-absorbed cold-natured odd ducks. (In 30 years, brother Harry received two visits from his loved ones. Sister Edie was disparaged as a failure for remaining unmarried, even as they all expected her to play nurse and nanny as their situations saw fit.)The subjects, including Rudyard Kipling, never quite come alive on the page. This may not be entirely Ms. Flanders' fault--there seems to have been an awful lot of letter burning in this family. (Plus its hard to feel empathy for people who kept their emotional lives so tightly buttoned down.) The writing, addtionally, is not as crisp as Inside the Victorian Home. You'll forget these women soon enough, and be glad you did.
   
   
   That said, her book Inside the Victorian Home is excellent. I highly recommend it.



2. This isn't something that I would recommend to every reader. The title sounds a lot more warm and fuzzy than the sisters were. If you are expecting a heart-warming tale of the days when all families were close and unfailingly took care of one another, this isn't it. One recommendation I would make is to look up the Rudyard Kipling, Stanley Baldwin, Edward Burne-Jones and Edward Poynter in an encyclopedia, the Dictionary of National Biography or on the internet if they are not familiar. I say this not by way of faulting the book, there are too many characters to give each a full treatment, but it helps to have some idea of who these people were.
   
   The book focuses on the daughters of a Methodist minister. Four either married men who became famous or had sons who became famous. Unfortunately, these are generally not terribly charming personalities, so it is no great delight getting to know them unless one is interested in the period or these particular people. But for those with a special interest, I think it will probably be quite interesting. There were also two brothers, one who was rather unsuccessful and one who was quite successful as a Methodist clergyman, but they take a back seat to their sisters both in the book and in the sisters' lives.
   
   The one thing that I would have liked to have seen developed better is successful relations within the extended family. Georgiana Burne-Jones was very close to her nephew Rudyard, but I'm not really certain why. This may be a problem with a lack of sources on this particular point - Flanders can infer from guest books which relatives saw little of each other but more positive information would be necessary for this.
   
   The MacDonald sisters: Alice, Georgiana, Agnes, Louisa and Edith, came from a modest, barely middle-class background. It is quite interesting that three of them married men from equally undistinguished roots, one a man who was perhaps upper middle-class. Despite these seemingly unpromising beginnings, two of the initally undistinguished husbands, Edward Burne-Jones and Edward Poynter (married to Georgiana and Agnes, respectively) became very successful and famous in the field of art. The third husband, Lockwood Kipling, married to Alice, was successful in his field, and their son, Rudyard, would become an international literary success and quite wealthy. The fourth, husband, Alfred Baldwin, married to Louisa, was a model as an industrialist, noted for public service, who went into politics. Their son, Stanley Baldwin, was three time Prime Minister. Many of the less famous members of the family pursued successful careers as writiers, sometimes quite well known in their time. A few were failures as life: either suffering psychological problems, perhaps due to a frustration of their creative potential, or too comfortable as the children of the famous. Judith Flanders attempts to discover how nurture, i.e., being related to the MacDonalds, may have lead to the surprising achievements. I don't think that she really succeeds, not that I believe that we necessarily can ferret out these influences, but she does draw a probing picture of an interesting family. She considers not only the facts, but draws reasonable inferences about the human beings they refer to. She is quite clear about when she is speculating.
   
   Flanders has done an enormous amount of research. There are many notes, a 12-page "Select Bibliography" and an index. There are eight pages of plates, with 45-50 well-selected pictures of the extended family. I particularly want to commend how the notes and index were done. The notes have both the chapter number and chapter running title, making it much easier to match them with the notes in the text. The index has brief explanatory notes in parentheses after the names of less important characters, e.g. (niece of so-and-so), which is often all that is needed, as well as cross-reference to variant names.
   
   Probably not for everybody, but a excellent work for its subjects.



3. I read Ms. Flanders' previous work, "Inside the Victorian Home",(loved it) and therefore I was familiar with Ms. Flanders' writing style. Knowing the author's style helped me to enjoy CIRCLE OF SISTERS much more than if I had not first read Ms. Flanders previous book.
   
   I guess what I'm eluding to is: Ms. Flander's "interesting" writing style. Her style is almost Edwardian,for lack of a better word. Her style can get rather dull in some parts of this book, but luckily, the various intertwining life-stories help the reader to pick up the pace.
   
   If you want to read an intersting book about what life must have been like during the Victorian Era, and especially for four rather "unusual" sisters (ie: unusual for their time), then a reader may find this book quite fascinating, as I did.
   
   The book starts off with a Geneology Tree showing where each sister, and how their respected mates and relatives, fit into the picture.
   
   Then the book takes you back to grandfather MacDonald's life and how he and his wife rose to the challenges they encountered (eg: loneliness of a minister's wife, low pay, many moves).
   
   Soon, the reader is taken to a description of each of the sisters. By the way, there were actually FIVE MacDonald sisters, but Edith, the youngest, never married and therefore she was only slightly talked about. The main plot actually evolves around the four older sisters,(Georgie, Agnes, Alice and Louisa) because these four "main" sisters ended-up marrying famous men (such as Rudyard Kipling's father) and had more exciting lives than poor Edith , who ended-up being the parents' caretaker and stayed home most of the time.
   
   Each chapter of this book describes a "stage" in the sisters' lives (eg: meeting their mates, marriage, their children, infirmary, strange health issues, old age, death, etc.).
   
   The author does a very nice job with even the slightest details of each sisters` life....Example, from what they wore and ate the day one sister met her future husband (eg: Alice was biting into an onion when first approached by John Lockwood Kipling in KIPLING PARK), to when another sister had to deal with infidelity (ie: Georgie's husband's affair).
   
   The other interesting part of this book is that it describes, in detail, how each of the sisters' children felt and how each turned-out, in the long run! For instance, I think that readers will be quite surprised to learn, how Trix and Rudyard Kipling grew-up and how their personalities changed because of their environments and upbringing.
   
   I don't want to say much more, because that might ruin the story, but I must say that after reading this book I knew more about the MacDonald sisters, the Victorian Era, and the sisters' relatives, than I had ever imagined.

No comments about 4 Books By Sir Winston Churchill.

3 comments about Clinging to the Wreckage.

1. As always Mortimor has shown brilliance in the world of literature. I was surprized to have found this book without a customer review. I thoroughly enjoy it and highly recommend it for readers of biography. Comparable with Robert Graves "Goodbye to All That".



2. CLINGING TO THE WRECKAGE is the first of John Mortimer's three-part autobiography (to date--as of 2001 he is 83 years of age and going strong). Mortimer is known to BBC/PBS fans as the multi-talened writer who developed the screenplays for the TV series BRIDESHEAD REVISITED based on Evelyn Waugh's book of the same name; creator of Rumpole, Queen's Counsel (QC) for the underdog; and author of many novels including the Titmuss trilogy, and SUMMER'S LEASE. In WRECKAGE, John tells of his childhood and young adulthood.

   Mortimer grew up the son of a British barrister/counselor and his wife a former artist. Against his will he was sent off to boarding school at an early age. However, Mortimer's father lost his eyesight owing to a retinal detachment that could not be repaired. As a result the family source of income was placed in jeopardy and young John and his mother became his father's eyes helping him prepare his legal briefs.

   Mortimer says he fell in love with the theater at an early age. His family made pilgrimages to Stratford-on-Avon to see the great Royal Shakespeare company perform the bard's works. There he was able to see Lawrence Olivier, John Gielgud, and other fabulous actors of the period. These theater experiences coupled with his work on his father's briefs, led to his own career as a QC, and planted a love of the English language and the theater in the young John which led to his subsequent success in the theater, on television, and in his many books.

   The book also covers his first marriage to Penelope, with whom he formed a family of six childen which included her four daughters from a previous marriage.

   Whether or not you have been lucky enough to enjoy the witty dialogue of Rumpole--including his verbal exchanges with wife Hilda (SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED), the clever plot twists of the Titmuss series, or the wonderful and inspirational BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, you will love this book if you love Brit Wit. Mortimer is incredibly human and very funny.




3. This is the first of two autobiographies by John Mortimer. If you'd like to see where Rumpoles come from, this is how you find out. Amusing in many places, serious in others, possibly a bit more revealing than the author intended.