‘One to One’
28 January 2021
Rosie Millard’s BBC Radio 4 series ‘One to One’ consists of 15-minute interviews with a range of people who are trying to break into the big-time of the creative arts – their dream of success and what it means to them. This week’s episode featured Ben Hopwood who has found fulfilment as an amateur actor with Leeds Arts Centre and talks about the advantages of pursuing your ambitions in amateur rather than professional theatre. It was particularly good to hear about Ben’s experience of acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2016 in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for the Nation' (reviewed here in May 2016). This was the RSC’s touring production of Shakespeare’s most popular comedy which visited 14 theatres across the UK as a co-production with 14 amateur theatre companies who provided local actors in each location to play the rude mechanicals – and marked the culmination of the Open Stages programme originally developed by Voluntary Arts and the RSC in 2009. You can listen to Ben Hopwood’s story (and the other episodes in the ‘One to One’ series) at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rn4x
Labels: Radio
‘The Clockmaker’s Daughter’ by Kate Morton
22 January 2021
I’ve really enjoyed reading ‘The Clockmaker’s Daughter’ by Kate Morton – a compelling and beautifully written novel which feels like a family saga. It actually tells the story of several families with connections to Birchwood Manor – a grand country house next to a bend in the River Thames in Wiltshire. A non-linear narrative gradually fills in the details of what happens to an epic cast of characters who are mysteriously drawn to the house between 1862 and 2017. At times the book feels like a collection of linked short stories as we focus on the events of particular moments in the history of the house in turn. But it is the links between these stories, their protagonists and their descendants that are fascinating. The novel is part romance, part murder mystery, part ghost story. It’s entertaining, moving and clever and I sailed through its nearly 600 pages.
Labels: Books
FolkBaroque
15 January 2021
Baroque at the Edge is a festival, founded by my friend Lindsay Kemp, which invites leading musicians from all genres to take the music of the Baroque and see where it leads them. This year, unsurprisingly, the festival has moved online, presenting a series of streamed concerts, talks and interactive Zoom discussions, which are running throughout January: you can still buy tickets to watch the recordings until 31 March 2021. I really enjoyed FolkBaroque – a concert recorded at LSO St Luke’s in London, featuring the ensemble La Nuova Musica, directed by David Bates, joined by the soprano Lucy Crowe and the folk fiddler Tom Moore, which explored the links between folk and baroque music. The programme contrasted and combined classical and folk music, from a similar historical era. It was particularly interesting to compare the different violin techniques demonstrated by Tom Moore and the ensemble’s violinist Thomas Gould. It was a delicate, clean, precise performance, beautifully filmed without an audience in the cavernous space of St Luke’s. Alongside well-known traditional tunes including ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘If I were a black bird’ it was great to discover some unfamiliar repertoire. I really liked the ‘Ciaccona’ by Antonio Bertali – a piece for virtuoso violin which predates JS Bach’s famous ‘Chaconne’ by 50 years. But I thought the standout performance was the singer Lucy Crowe whose amazing voice and clarity of diction were brilliantly displayed in this online performance. See: http://www.baroqueattheedge.co.uk/
Labels: Concerts, Film, Music
‘Troubled Blood’ by Robert Galbraith
8 January 2021
‘Troubled Blood’ is the fifth Cormoran Strike novel by J K Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith). It’s the longest novel in the series (I read it as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Robert Glenister, which was almost 32 hours long) but nevertheless felt less rambling and more focussed than its predecessors. This may be because, for the first time, Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott are investigating a cold case – the unexplained disappearance of a doctor who left her surgery more than 40 years ago and was never seen again. Piecing together what happened so long ago, interviewing witnesses, suspects and the original investigators, or their descendants, creates a clearer narrative structure, less diverted by emerging events. And the solution to this crime is clever, hard-to-spot but satisfyingly believable and, when revealed, explains a myriad of small clues imperceptibly laced through the novel. J K Rowling still manages to demonstrate a strange lack of understanding of budget hotel chains (why choose to be specific about it being a Premier Inn if you are not going to get the details right? - is no-one editing these novels?). But I still enjoyed the murder mystery – the best puzzle of the series so far.
Labels: Books
‘Time and Time Again’ by Ben Elton
8 January 2021
I haven’t read a Ben Elton novel for many years: his transition from stand-up comedian to author began (in 1989) with a series of enjoyable but unsurprising comic novels, after which I lost touch with his work. It was great to discover a more recent book, ‘Time and Time Again’ (published in 2014) which shows Ben Elton maturing into a more sophisticated novelist. This is a gripping time-travel thriller about trying to right the wrongs of the 20th century by going back to 1914 to prevent the outbreak of the Great War. It’s a cleverly plotted and compellingly paced story, carefully researched and genuinely exciting – and all the better for not trying to be funny.
Labels: Books
