Something rather exciting happened the other day, but I’m not saying anything yet – you’ll have to wait!
As I am unable to resist a teaser, though, here’s my dad’s battered old cricket bat.
Anyone for cricket?
Feud: Bette and Joan
Equal billing, darling! I am no one’s support.
What could be more splendid than feuding actors? Aside from pop stars, actors are perhaps the most diva-ish of creatives. Aside, perhaps, from authors….
FX’s Feud: Bette and Joan is currently on UK screens, and I have been nibbling my way through the box set on BBC iPlayer, as if through a box of the richest Belgian chocolates. The mid-century costumes and sets pop with colour, Lange and Sarandon flounce and stomp and glower with gusto, and the whole thing is wrapped up in a wonderfully crisp and zesty layer of camp. And I want every one of Hedda Hopper’s hats for my collection.
Of course, I can’t watch Feud without thinking of Adam and Thomas in the short story “An Actor’s Guide to Romance”, written collaboratively by myself and Catherine Curzon.
There’s something fun about a theatrical feud – even if it’s not always that fun for the players involved, though one suspects that anyone whose profession is performance cannot but resist bringing some drama off-stage. A melodramatic flounce through the theatre bar after a performance, a sulk in the Green Room, a battle for parts and plaudits.
An Actor’s Guide to Romance
It’s the first day of a new year, and my first ever (trumpets please) published fiction is out in a couple of weeks’ time.
When long-time theatrical enemies are cast as lovers, their late-night rehearsal brings a whole new meaning to method acting.
For twenty years, Adam Fisher and Thomas Fox have been the best of enemies. From their first meeting at drama school to shared stages, shared bills and a competition to amass the most illustrious awards, they have been the names on every theatregoers’ lips. Separately they can sell out an entire run in an hour, so when they’re cast as lovers in London’s hottest new play, the tickets are gone in minutes.
But for rakish Adam and gentlemanly Thomas, the small matter of their first on-stage kiss is causing a headache for everyone. Over a bottle of wine on one rainy night in the city, these two acting legends will do whatever it takes to banish their first-night nerves. After all, as everyone knows, the show must go on!
An Actor’s Guide to Romance, co-written with Catherine Curzon, will be published 23 January 2018 by Pride. Pre-order from Pride, Amazon Kindle and Kobo.