Writing home

This is a nice thick book for only 180 baht at the Soi Diana Book Shop in Pattaya, Thailand. I can sell it back for 90 baht, so it will only have cost me 90 baht, less than 3 bucks. If I'd ever heard of Alan Bennett, I had forgotten the name. Turns out that at 75, he's a few months younger than I. I've only skimmed it, but there is delightful stuff about John Gielgud in rehearsals for Bennett's play Forty Years On in 1968. On page 321: "Indeed, it sometimes seems that their chief pleasure in going to the theatre in Brighton is in leaving it, and leaving it as noisily as possible. In Beyond the Fringe the seats were going up like pistol shots throughout the performance so that, come the curtain, there were scarcely more in the audience than there were on the stage." On pages 412-413: "I had been here [Brighton] before in 1961 with Beyond the Fringe. It was the week before we went to London, and we played to a handful of old ladies, most of whom had left before the interval: the seats were going up like pistol shots throughout the performance." I don't blame Bennett for the repetition of "the seats were going up like pistol shots throughout the performance," but if the editor is not asleep, such repetition can be avoided.

If there is a spark of humanity in you read this book. Alan Bennett was part of the satire boom in early 60's in the UK and when neccessary has a caustic dry wit that can catch you by surprise sometimes. However for me what comes through in this book is his humanity. The first section of the book where this is highlighted is his address at the funeral of Russell Harty, which only amounts to 7 pages. Harty was a successful TV show host and interviewer in the UK, who was hounded by the press in the 1980's over his sexuality (he was homosexual and never tried to hide that fact). Bennetts address is full of compassion and will either leave you crying or plotting a nasty end to some of the gutter press. 'The Lady in the Van' is a full chapter (45 pages) and a completely true story. At one point it was available to buy as a seperate book and is taken largely from his diaries. In the 1970's and 1980's outside Alan Bennett's own house in Camden, London, an old lady (Miss Shepherd) lived in a Van in the street. After a time the local council decided she could no longer stay on the street. Amazingly Bennett allowed her to move her Van into his garden and there she remained until she died. This is truly a remarkable story. Bennett of course is a marvellous observer of people and there is a side of me that says he only did it so that he could watch her. However read 'The Lady in the Van' in full and you are left in doubt that Alan Bennett couldn't have done it for that reason, because Miss Shephard's living conditions were frankly disgusting and the smell.. well enough said. Its a truly moving and poignant story. The diaries constitute a major section of the book amounting to 180 pages. These cover the years 1980 to 1995. There is a section of prefaces to plays as well as articles on writers and filming. These other sections of the book are of the same high standard of writing as the two I mention above, if not all on quite the same emotional level.

For those Americans who have never heard of Alan Bennett and are wondering wether or not to get this book...I say go for it. But if you're looking for something exciting you may be disapointed. Mostly subdued, sometimes hillarious stories of a life. Don't miss "The Lady in the Van"!

In this country, I look for the least sign of God. It might be a dawn, the sound of music, laughter of an old person, giggling among my grandchildren, the prospect of the end of Bush's term, the golden silence of tv turned off, my wife's loving voice telling me to take out the garbage, take out the dog, take her out to a movie...and Alan Bennett's "Writing Home". What pleasure there is in this book. If you are literate and do not own it, reflect on what in your life has brought you into your miserable condition.

It is unbelievable that I'm the first person to review this fantastic book. The book itself is also unbelievable in its intelligence, wit, depth, color, interest, and sheer genius. Alan Bennett is one of the rarest minds of the 20th/21st century. If you're a real reader and you don't have this book, you damn well better buy it.