Cultural Dessert

In 1998 we went to Birmingham Rep to see ‘Home Truths’, a new play by David Lodge which explored notions of fame and celebrity through the subject of a newspaper celebrity interview. Queuing at the box office to collect our tickets we realised that the man in front of us, in a dishevelled cardigan, was the author (much shorter in real life than he appears on the television!). Lodge later rewrote ‘Home Truths’ as a novella which I read at a single sitting last Sunday. The form of the book reminded me of the shorter works of Alan Bennett, such as 'The Uncommon Reader’ (reviewed here in November 2008) and, like all David Lodge’s books, it deals with complex themes and emotions in a very accessible and humorous way. It was fun to be reminded of the play, and of how our preoccupations with celebrity haven’t changed much in the past eleven years.