I’ve had an amusing last couple of weeks sitting at my desk in the early mornings watching movies and listening in on podcasts and radio shows. I've put together a list of ‘Stuff’ in the historical department. It’s fiction, and it’s non-fiction and all of it I recommend. So if you, during the next months, are looking for entertainment for one reason or another (or no reason at all), and you haven’t got a clue where to find it, look no further!
Here’s to you A Handful of Stuff - 5 (and some more...) entertaining fiction and non-fiction things on history I thought were worth sharing. Enjoy!
SPOOKY STUFF
There’s something oddly attractive about ghost stories, I find. So when I stumbled on this radio show I knew I had to dive in.
"I realised I wasn't alone. I looked up and saw these buckled shoes and a man standing in the ash of the fireplace, wearing thick stockings and breeches. He was a very tangible, burly man in his late 40s, and he looked at me with the same curiosity that I looked at him, as if to say, 'What are you doing in my house?’"
The belief in haunted theatres in Britain is so widespread that many have a 'ghost light' burning on stage all through the night. In Shakespeare's time it would have been a candle. Now it is a single bare lightbulb, intended to keep the ghosts at bay.
In the radio show “Ghost Stories from Theatreland”, actor Jack Shepherd gets fellow actors and theatre staff to open up about their ghostly experiences in some of Britain's spookiest theatres. Also we hear Dr. Caroline Watt, psychologist and professor of parapsychology, explain about ghosts seen from a professional viewpoint. In the podcast “What is Parapsychology?” Watt unfolds her studies even more. Did you know that half of all people in the world believe in some form of the paranormal? - And that research shows that telepathy is possible?
A podcast on hysteria that is both highly entertaining and informative as well. Really? Yes, really! I give you my word. At least when actress and writer Alice Lowe explores the phenomenon.
“Howling nuns, fainting schoolgirls, witches and wombs. Crossing decades and continents, and from personal panics to societal scares. Join the delirium….Lowe has long been fascinated by the grey area between behavioural control and abandonment. In this six-part series, she explores what we really mean when we talk about frenzies, fevers, manias and panics – both individually and throughout society.”
CLASSICAL STUFF
It’s been ages since I watched a silent movie, but turning on Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid”, I very soon found out that this ‘oldie’ still is worth exploring.
“A tramp - played by Chaplin - reluctantly rescues a baby abandoned by an unwed mother. Successfully he raises him for several years. When the mother eventually makes an effort to retrieve the child, the tramp and his young protégé embark on a desperate attempt to escape."
"100 years ago - January 21, 1921 - Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was his first full-length film as a director and is described as his most ambitious production. Chaplin wrote in his autobiography that "there had been satire, farce, realism, naturalism, melodrama and fantasy, but raw slapstick and sentiment, the premise of “The Kid", was something of an innovation." He recalled being told by an industry professional, "It won't work. The form must be pure, either slapstick or drama; you cannot mix them; otherwise, one element of your story will fail." But Chaplin followed his intuition, and the film was an instant success.”
Emma Thompson is doing an excellent job as Dame Edith Sitwell in the fun and moving podcast “The Dame and the Showgirl”.
“In 1953, the English poet Dame Edith Sitwell had been commissioned to interview Marilyn Monroe for Life magazine. Their meeting was engineered, she later wrote, because “it was obvious that we were born to hate each other, would do so at first sight, and that our subsequent insults to each other would cause a commotion when reported.
That scandal never materialised. Instead, the pair hit it off – Sitwell praising Monroe’s “natural dignity”, intelligence and sensitivity – and they later met again as friends. But what did they talk about on that first encounter? For his debut audio drama, Simon Berry takes some details from Sitwell’s memoir and rearranges the timeline of Monroe’s rise to movie-goddess stature to create a lightly comic and occasionally touching conversation between an odd couple who turn out to have quite a bit in common.”
DETECTIVE STUFF
About a week ago, season 2 of the charming crime drama “Lupin” was released on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it already, I encourage you to do so. (P.S. rumour has it that season 3 is on its way…)
“The story follows professional thief Assane Diop, the only son of an immigrant from Senegal who had come to France to seek a better life for his child. Assane's father is framed for the theft of an expensive diamond necklace by his employer, the wealthy and powerful Hubert Pellegrini, and hangs himself in his prison cell out of shame, leaving the teenage Assane an orphan. Twenty-five years later, inspired by a book about gentleman thief Arsène Lupin his father had given him on his birthday, Assane sets out to get revenge on the Pellegrini family, using his charisma and mastery of thievery, subterfuge, and disguise to expose Hubert's crimes.”
She collects photographs of weddings that she finds on auction sites and flea markets, and he is a journalist. Together they want to help the photos find their owner. And let me say: the stories they come across in their search are pretty surprising.
“Wedding albums capture the happiest day of a couple’s life. But what happens when those pictures are lost, discarded or even thrown away? Wedding album collector Charlotte Sibtain and journalist Cole Moreton uncover the stories behind the photographs and try to reunite them with the family. In the first episode, the Wedding Detectives find just two photographs from the 1959 high society wedding of Tim and Sonya Bryant but, following clues, uncover a trail that takes them to West Cornwall and an extraordinary story involving Einstein, infidelity and a trial for murder.”
STUFF ON VICTORIAN LONDON
After only a few chapters of “The Watchmaker of Filigree Street” - written by Natasha Pulley - I was hooked! “An enchanting novel that sweeps readers into a magical Victorian London inhabited by a clockwork octopus and a mysterious watchmaker who is not at all what he first appears."
"It’s 1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.”
In my opinion, Victorian London is one of the world's best settings for crime stories - which is probably one of the reasons why I've fallen for Ann Granger's “A Rare Interest in Corpses”.
“When Lizzie Martin arrives in London in 1864 to become a lady’s companion, her first impressions are disturbing. She’s barely out of the station when her cab encounters a wagon carrying the remains of a young woman recently dead.
At her new home, Lizzie learns that her predecessor, Madeleine Hexham, disappeared without a word of warning. Despite rumours of immoral behaviour surrounding the girl’s departure, Lizzie is soon persuaded that there’s a deeper mystery here. Her suspicions are tragically confirmed when Inspector Benjamin Ross delivers shocking tidings.
Lizzie is determined to unravel the truth about the lost Miss Hexham. As, too, is Ben Ross: a man who cares about justice, whatever the class of victim. But they must tread carefully, as a cornered killer is the most dangerous of all…”
ANIMATED STUFF
The animated film “The Illusionist” is beautifully made, and truly a heart-warming story.
“The Illusionist is one of a dying breed of stage entertainers. With emerging rock stars stealing his thunder in the late 1950s, he is forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theatres, at garden parties and in bars and cafés. Then, while performing in a village pub off the west coast of Scotland, he encounters Alice, an innocent young girl who will change his life forever."
"A script for “The Illusionist” was originally written by French comedy genius and cinema legend Jacques Tati as a love letter from a father to his daughter, but never produced. Sylvain Chomet, the Oscar-nominated and critically acclaimed creator of “The Triplets of Belleville”, adapted the script and brought it to life in his distinctive hand-drawn animated style.”
An animated movie about the Japanese designer who created an iconic aeroplane used in WWII? Is that something I’d recommend? Well, yes, actually it is. “The Wind Rises” is a splendid story, delightfully made by the one and only Hayao Miyazaki.
“The story begins in 1918. A young Jiro Horikoshi longs to become a pilot, but his nearsightedness prevents it. He reads about the famous Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni and dreams about him that night. In the dream, Caproni tells him that he has never flown a plane in his life and that building planes is better than flying them. Five years later, Horikoshi is travelling by train to study aeronautical engineering at Tokyo Imperial University. We follow him through his studies and when he lands a job at aircraft manufacturer Mitsubishi. Here he eventually creates the legendary aeroplane “Zero”. Throughout the film, we also get to know how he meets his wife and how she, unfortunately, is very ill, suffering from tuberculosis. The Wind Rises is described as one of Hayao Miyazaki’s “most unique films to date”.
This is the last blog post from my desk this season. As always, it has been a pleasure sharing all the exciting historical things with you in the last months. Thanks for reading, and also, thanks for all the emails and responses I've received. They are much appreciated!
See you in the next season - starting September 2nd.
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Majken xx
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That's All Folks! Josephine Baker dancing the 'Charleston', 1925.
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