The news that the cast and crew of the new Talking Heads series have agreed to take only a nominal fee and donate the profits to the NHS gives him a rare rush of pleasure in a world dominated by the bleak economics of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. In no time, however, I was drawn in by Bennett's spot on reminiscences and comments upon current happenings. The Queen watches the Remembrance Day ceremony at The Cenotaph with “ a beady eye on the revamped choreography.

His 2009 play, The Habit of Art, received glowing reviews and was broadcast live the following year by National Theatre Live. He makes his ideas and success sound like mere chance, or perhaps through being with the right people at them right time. A lyrical afterword describes the journey home to Yorkshire from King's Cross station via fish and chips on Quebec Street, past childhood landmarks of Leeds, through Coniston Cold, over the infant River Aire, and on.The History Boys won Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Olivier awards, as well as the South Bank Award. House Arrest - Pandemic Diaries' (2022) - is a very lovely, although very short (coming in at less than 50 pages) collection taken from Alan Bennett's diaries of the time.

TheDeorhord by Hana Videen is a fascinating collection of medieval creatures large and small, and a delightful dive into Old English. His television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for the stage, including Forty Years On , The Lady in the Van , A Question of Attribution , The Madness of King George Ill (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George ) and an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows .Given that 86-year-old Bennett is hobbled with arthritis, this is hardly an ambitious excursion – literally three minutes “round the block” of their north London street. As always, I found Alan Bennett's writing style and social observations delightful, poignant and amusing but the book is so short that I felt a real sense of disappointment when I reached the end of his reflections, leaving me with a feeling of having been 'cheated'! Always a privilege to have the insight into someone’s diaries and in a way it feels like diaries during the height of the pandemic are even more intimate and personal than others.

On the phone to the optician about his broken glasses, he finds that he has lost the words, and his partner has to take over. He may clearly be increasingly frail but, even in lockdown, Alan Bennett retains his customary waspish wit in the latest tranche of his diaries ― Choice --This text refers to the hardcover edition. TheBookAtWar by Andrew Pettegree is the perfect present for bibliophiles and history buffs alike – a fascinating exploration of the role of books in wartime. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.Disappointed overall compared to much of the author's other work, which I have generally enjoyed - 4/10. Bennett is such a master of the mundane I actually would have relished reading about what he did in that first lockdown when the world shrank for everyone. Christmas is just around the corner, but DON’T PANIC: we’re here to provide you with the ultimate festive gifting inspiration, and remind you that books are certainly the easiest presents to wrap…!

Less than 50 pages of nothing, there are a handful of snippets which appear to be going somewhere but immediately are snuffed out. Alan Bennett's collection of prose, Untold Stories , won the PEN/Ackerley Prize for Autobiography, 2006. Across the world, and throughout time, there have been people who have risen to the challenge of leading others. This radical essay explores patriarchy and capitalism’s impact on beauty ideals, and inspires us to embrace our own disobedient bodies.Using words such as 'lovely' and 'charming' here to describe'House Arrest', could make Bennett's book sound trite or suggest that it somehow lacks depth, but it is neither of the things and as with everything from Alan Bennett - well worth your time. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.