Lessing had written the book (The Diary of a Good Neighbour) under a pseudonym (Jane Somers), “partly because she wanted it to be appraised purely on merit, partly out of solidarity with young writers, and partly to free herself from her own literary persona.” James Lasdun, who was the slush-pile reader at Lessing’s regular publisher who recommended rejecting the Somers manuscript, fesses up.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Another Attempt To Stage Rebecca Musical On Broadway
“Rebecca, based on the Daphne Du Maurier novel, has died multiple deaths on Broadway before ever opening and it now looks like producers are trying one more time to bring the show to New York.”
Florence’s Marble Façades To Get €30M Facelift
“Franco Lucchesi, the president of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, which manages the historic buildings in Florence’s Piazza del Duomo, has announced that the institution will spend between €30m and €35m to restore the marble façades (around 40,000 sq. m) on all of the square’s monuments.”
There Will Be No More Bunheads On TV
After several months of holding back on a final decision, the ABC Family network decided to cancel “its comedy-drama series about aspiring young dancers and their unconventional mentor after only one season, during which the series had developed a modest but passionate fan base.”
Why Hulu Or Netflix Or Amazon Should Save Bunheads (It Could Be Good Business)
“Bunheads, in the current television environment, is the rarest of beasts: a show children (at least ones old enough for mild sex talk) and adults can actually enjoy together. … That may be a narrow sweet spot, but it’s also one where potential classics can blossom and flower.”
Bollywood’s Pre-History: When Movies First Came To Mumbai (Much Earlier Than You Think)
“Movies first came to Mumbai on 7 July 1896. The Lumière brothers sent a man named Marius Sestier to screen their short films to a mostly British audience at the swanky Watson hotel. … But local photographer Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar (popularly known as Save Dada) was at one of those first Mumbai shows – and he was promptly moved to order a camera of his own from the UK.”
Decoding Late-Period Woody Allen
Richard Brody: “These later movies fall into two patterns. There’s Analogue Woody … and Symbolic Woody … The difference is simple: the former films are stories of motives, the latter, stories of theories. The former emphasize writing as a way of exemplifying character; the latter films use situations and devices to embody ideas.”
Amazon’s Devoted (Not To Say Obsessive) Citizen Classical Music Reviewers
“Who on Earth would write, almost daily, these 1,000-word overviews of composers and music that most of the general population has never heard of and probably don’t care to know about?”
#lpmemories: Travelers And Contributors Reminisce About Lonely Planet Guidebooks
“Swapping LPs with fellow travellers at border crossings and feeling happy your companion didn’t go to waste .” “Putting cash in socks while crossing Guatemala/Belize border. Hijacked by bandits with LP guide who went straight for my socks.” “Rode auto-rickshaw in Kathmandu to deliver travel guide ms to FedEx, delayed by goat sacrifice on airport runway.”
Size Doesn’t Matter Much – For Peahens
“Peacocks are the dandies of the bird world, investing a huge amount of energy into growing their elaborate coloured tails. Now we have the first idea of just what a peahen looks for in a peacock’s tail – and for such an icon of evolutionary biology, the answer is surprisingly little.”