276°
Posted 20 hours ago

House Arrest: Pandemic Diaries

£4.495£8.99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

Boris Johnson’s nightly addresses during the Pandemic are “ pretty pointless… a poor orator and speaker generally… the plainness of Keir Starmer a relief. The book is his personal diary of his time during the lockdown, and he seems to have survived it splendidly.

The History Boys won Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Olivier awards, as well as the South Bank Award. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Young Alan was strictly forbidden from setting foot in this den of contagion until, lured by Mrs Sherwood’s cloud-like yorkshire pudding, he decides to risk it: “It was as if I’d signed my own death warrant.In no time, however, I was drawn in by Bennett's spot on reminiscences and comments upon current happenings. HMQ pictured in the paper at an investiture wearing gloves, presumably as a precaution against Coronavirus. Bennett’s diaries, which he has been publishing since the early 1980s, are full of these “absurd and inexplicable” moments. Across the world, and throughout time, there have been people who have risen to the challenge of leading others. Until, that is, the horrible thought strikes him that it must look as if he is acknowledging the applause, perhaps even trying to generate it himself.

In November 2020 he notices that the Queen, nearly 10 years his senior, is able to walk backwards when laying a wreath at the Cenotaph. Now eighty-six and arthritic, he has swapped his bicycle for a wheelchair, but he gave us two new monologues for the revamp of Talking Heads in 2020 – the royalties from which he donated to NHS charities. He makes his ideas and success sound like mere chance, or perhaps through being with the right people at them right time. Alan Bennett is a renowned playwright and essayist, a succession of whose plays have been staged at the Royal National Theatre and whose screenplay for The Madness of King George was nominated for an Academy Award. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

Alan Bennett has been one of our leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. Bought today and have no idea when this was published but it feels just like sitting with Alan Bennett for a chat. While Mr Bennett is never less than readable, this very slight volume is the length of a magazine article and really nothing more than an erudite version of anyone's lockdown experience. Okay obviously it’s Allan Bennet so knew what was coming ,however I thought it would be far longer in content than it was . The film of The Lady in the Van starring Maggie Smith was released in 2015, sending Bennett's memoir of the same name to the top of the bestseller list for nine weeks.

With Rupert now working from home my life is much easier, as I get regular cups of tea and a lovely hot lunch. His 2009 play, The Habit of Art , received glowing reviews and was broadcast live the following year by National Theatre Live. Generally, I worship at the altar of Alan Bennett but this very slight volume was a big disappointment.Our national treasure at work during the pandemic – sharing his everyday thoughts, alongside his increasing physical infirmities, in his own inimitable way. Illustration: Barry Falls/The Observer View image in fullscreen ‘His writing remains as deft and seamless as ever’ … Alan Bennett. The director pops round later that day to discuss details, which he is obliged to semaphore from the other side of the street. I spent a pleasant half hour reading this but it's not as jaunty as his diaries have been in the past and the constraints of the pandemic and ageing mean that much of his reflection now relates to past rather than present encounters.

TheDeorhord by Hana Videen is a fascinating collection of medieval creatures large and small, and a delightful dive into Old English. Although I love Alan Bennett’s diaries I’m not entirely sure that this was deserving of a publication on its own. TheNotebook by Roland Allen is a gorgeously illustrated cultural history of the humble notebook, from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers. The entries begin on 24 February 2020, with the diarist chipper about the unlikelihood of the new virus in Milan having much effect on London living, and chunter on to the autumn of 2021 when the crisis appears to be in the rearview mirror (we know, although he does not, that Omicron is lurking in the wings).I hope they're not the thin end of a precautionary wedge lest Her Majesty end up swathed in protective get-up such as is worn at the average crime scene. Some really touching and poignant moments in here; a few bits that stand out are when Bennett has a small interaction with a stranger sweeping the street that “makes his morning” (such interactions being rare at that point), a footnote in a poem in LRB triggering a vivid childhood memory from 1941 (genuinely fascinating and one of my favourite things is when a tiny snippet evokes mass nostalgia), and when he struggles to explain how his glasses have broken to an optician because of the lack of speaking he’s done to other people during 2020 (definitely remember making some pretty awful blunders for a good few months until I worked out how to socialise again).

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment