Alan Bennett

What would happen if the Queen became a reader of taste and discernment rather than of Dick Francis? The answer is a perfect story.The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.

Si sus celebres perros hubieran respondido a su llamada, la reina no habría descubierto el vehículo de la biblioteca móvil del ayuntamiento aparcado junto a las puertas de las cocinas del palacio, en el lugar menos regio de los jardines. Y no habria conocido a Norman, el joven y pelirrojo pinche de cocina que estaba leyendo un libro de Cecil Beaton e iba a constituirse en su peculiar asesor literario. Pero ya que estaba alli, la reina decide llevarse un libro. ¿Y que puede interesar a alguien cuyo unico oficio es mostrarse interesada? Porque una reina nunca debe ser interesante, ni tener otros intereses que los de sus subditos. Y jamas habla de sus gustos, solo pregunta por los de ellos.Isabel II de Inglaterra descubre en los estantes de la biblioteca el nombre de una escritora que conoce, lvy Compton-Burnett. Tiempo atras le habia concedido un titulo nobiliario menor, y recordaba su tan singular peinado. Y de Compton-Burnett a Proust, que leera en una de sus estancias en Balmoral, y de Proust a Genet, cuya sola mencion hara temblar al presidente de Francia, solo median algunos libros. Asi, azarosamente, ella, que hasta entonces solo habia sido una reina, una pura entelequia, un lugar vacio ocupado por una fuerte idea del "deber", descubrira el vertigo de la lectura

Auden often said that metre and rhyme led him down unexpected paths to thoughts he wouldnt otherwise have had, and in this respect versification and fornication are not so different. Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by amongst others their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. You are a rent boy. I am a poet. Over the wall lives the Dean of Christ Church. We all have our parts to play.Alan Bennetts new play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passions spent: ultimately, on the habit of art. In the end, said Auden, art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning ones living and loving ones neighbour.

Its a dwindling band; old-fashioned and of a certain age, you can pick us out at funerals and memorial services because we can sing the hymns without the book. Alan Bennett writes: In 2001 the Medici Quartet commissioned the composer George Fenton to write them a piece commemorating their thirtieth anniversary. George Fenton appeared in my play Forty Years On and has written music for many of my plays since, and he asked me to collaborate on the commission. Hymn was the result. First performed at the Harrogate Festival in August 2001, its a series of memoirs with music. Besides purely instrumental passages for the quartet, many of the speeches are under-scored, incorporating some of the hymns and music I remember from my childhood and youth. The text includes both words and music. Hymn is coupled with Cocktail Sticks, an oratorio without music that revisits some of the themes and conversations of Alan Bennetts memoir A Life Like Other Peoples. A son talks to his dead father as his mother yearns for a different life. Its funny, tender and sad. The pinnacle of my social life is a scrutty bit of lettuce and tomato and some tinned salmon. Mind you, I read in Ideal Home that if you mix tinned salmon with this soft cheese you can make it into one of those moussy things. Shove a bit of lemon on it and it looks really classy.

An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks hes a fool. In Alan Bennetts new play, staff room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it; about education and its purpose.The History Boys premiered at the National in May 2004.Nothing could diminish the incendiary achievement of this subtle, deep-wrought and immensely funny play about the value and meaning of education .. In short, a superb, life-enhancing play.Guardian

Adapted for the screen by the author from his celebrated memoir, Alan Bennetts The Lady in the Van, is directed by long-standing collaborator Nicholas Hytner. The film tells the true story of the relationship between Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd, a woman of uncertain origins who temporarily parked her van in Bennetts London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years. Their unique story is funny, poignant and life-affirming.The Complete Lady in the Van contains a Foreword by Nicholas Hytner, a substantial Introduction with diary entries by Alan Bennett, the original memoir and the screenplay. The book includes numerous illustrations by David Gentleman, who sketched on set throughout filming, and a colour plate-section including behind-the-scenes photographs and stills from the film

A sale? Why not? Release all your wonderful treasures onto the open market and they are there for everyone to enjoy. Its a kind of emancipation, a setting them free to range the world ... a saleroom here, an exhibition there; art, Lady Stacpoole, is a rover.People spoil things; there are so many of them and the last thing one wants is them traipsing through ones house. But with the park a jungle and a bath on the billiard table, what is one to do? Dorothy wonders if an attic sale could be a solution. People premieres at the National Theatre, London, in October 2012. As with Alan Bennetts previous two plays, The History Boys and The Habit of Art, People will open in the Lyttelton Theatre in a production directed by the Nationals artistic director Nicholas Hytner.- Howre you doing?- Not sure.- Well why dont you get on the mobile to your dick and find out.

Alan Bennett is the acknowledged master of the television play. This vintage collection of his work from the 1970s illustrates his skill and mastery of the medium from the beginning. Perceptive, poignant, truthful and very funny, the work here gives as much enjoyment in the reading as it did in the viewing, and provides a welcome addition to the Bennett canon. The television plays included are A Day Out, Sunset Across the Bay, A Visit from Miss Prothero, Me, Im Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Green Forms, The Old Crowd and Afternoon Off. This volume contains a new general introduction by Alan Bennett, as well as the original preface by Lindsay Anderson to The Old Crowd. A companion volume of Alan Bennetts work from the late 1970s and early 1980s is published as Rolling Home.

- What were you in life?- In life, as you put it, I was a schoolmaster. The Beth, an old fashioned cradle-to-grave hospital serving a town on the edge of the Pennines, is threatened with closure as part of an NHS efficiency drive. As Dr Valentine and Sister Gilchrist attend to the patients, a documentary crew, eager to capture its fight for survival, follows the daily struggle to find beds on the Dusty Springfield Geriatric Ward. Meanwhile, the old peoples choir, in readiness for next weeks concert, is in full swing, augmented by the arrival of Mrs Maudsley, aka Pudsey Nightingale. Alan Bennetts Allelujah! opened at the Bridge Theatre, London, in July 2018. With an introduction by Alan Bennett.

Si sus célebres perros hubieran respondido a su llamada, la reina no habría descubierto el vehículo de la biblioteca móvil del ayuntamiento aparcado junto a las puertas de las cocinas del palacio. Y no habria conocido a Norman, el pinche de cocina que estaba leyendo un libro de Cecil Beaton e iba a constituirse en su asesor literario. Pero la reina decide llevarse un libro. ¿Y que puede interesar a alguien cuyo unico oficio es mostrarse interesada? Porque una reina nunca debe ser interesante, ni tener otros intereses que los de sus subditos. Y jamas habla de sus gustos, solo pregunta por los de ellos. Isabel II de Inglaterra halla en la biblioteca el libro de una escritora que conoce, Ivy Compton-Burnett. Tiempo atras le habia concedido un titulo nobiliario menor. Y de Compton-Burnett a Proust, y de Proust a Genet, solo median algunos libros. Asi, azarosamente, ella, que hasta entonces solo habia sido una reina, una pura entelequia, descubrira el vertigo de la lectura, del ser, del placer.Alan Bennett, que desde 1960 se pasea de la television al teatro, del cine a los libros, de la alta a la baja cultura, continua, para deleite de sus lectores, saltandose todos los limites con esta miniatura exquisita, mordiente y divertida.Alan Bennett imagina en esta encantadora nouvelle lo que podria ocurrir si la soberana de Inglaterra fuera presa de repente de una intensa, devoradora pasion por los libros. Y lo que en otras manos podria resultar un ejercicio forzado, o un irrespetuoso y frivolo delito de lesa majestad, aqui es una comedia deliciosa, y una poderosa reflexion sobre el poder, y el poder de la letra impresa... Los admiradores de sus obras teatrales, de sus ensayos y sus diarios, saben que Bennett es uno de los mas sutiles y elegantes escritores de nuestra epoca (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post).Tan grande es el encanto de este libro, que podriamos facilmente tomarlo por un amable jeu desprit; una de esas agudas, melancolicas fabulas realistas que Bennett urde con inmensa maestria. Pero es mas que eso. Bajo su atractivo mas inmediato, bulle una salvaje indignacion, digna de Jonathan Swift, contra la estupidez, el filisteismo y la arrogancia del poder, y una apasionada defensa del poder civilizador del arte (Jane Shilling, The Times).Bennett es el equivalente literario de un caricaturista genial. Se apropia de todos los topicos sobre la reina y los hace encajar en el universo bennettiano. Y uno nunca puede olvidar su feroz inteligencia, su divertido interes por lo trivial (Sam Leith, The Spectator).Un cuento de hadas cautivador, delicioso y muy divertido. Una aguda meditacion acerca del subversivo placer de la lectura (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times).

Funny, touching and real, this second collection of Alan Bennetts classic work for television from the late 1970s and early 1980s is full of fine observations of life as it is lived. Often imitated but never equalled, Bennetts work is a masterclass in how to write for the small screen and gives as much enjoyment in the reading as it did in the viewing. The television plays included in this volume are Our Winnie, All Day on the Sands, One Fine Day, Marks, Say Something Happened, Rolling Home and Intensive Care. This volume also contains a new general introduction by Alan Bennett. A companion volume of Alan Bennetts work from the 1970s is published as Me, Im Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

The ebook edition of Alan Bennetts celebrated monologuesAlan Bennetts Talking Heads is pretty much the best thing ever. David Sedaris Alan Bennett sealed his reputation as the master of observation with Talking Heads, a series of twelve groundbreaking monologues, originally filmed for BBC Television, starring Patricia Routledge, Thora Hird, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, Stephanie Cole, Eileen Atkins, David Haig, Penelope Wilton and Alan Bennett himself. This collection includes: A Woman of No Importance, A Chip in the Sugar, Bed Among the Lentils, A Lady of Letters, Her Big Chance, Soldiering On, A Cream Cracker Under the Settee, The Hand of God, Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet, Playing Sandwiches, The Outside Dog, Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Waiting for the Telegram. Uplifting, deeply moving, full of humanity and wit, they remain essential, glorious reading.

This second volume of plays by Alan Bennett includes his two Kafka plays, one an hilarious comedy, the other a profound and searching drama. Also included is An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution. The fascination of these two plays lies in the way they question our accepted notions of treachery and, in different ways, make a sympathetic case for Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt.

George IIIs behaviour has often been odd, but now he is deranged, with rumours circulating that he has even addressed an oak tree as the King of Prussia. Doctors are brought in, the government wavers and the Prince Regent manoeuvres himself into power. Alan Bennetts play explores the court of a mad king, and the fearful treatments he was forced to undergo. It is about the nature of kingship itself, showing how by subtle degrees the rulers delirium erodes his authority and status.

The Old CrowdA Private FunctionPrick Up Your Ears102 Boulevard HaussmannThe Madness of King George Starring characters as diverse as George III, Marcel Proust, Joe Orton, and a pig called Betty, Alan Bennetts masterful work for the screen gives as much enjoyment in the reading as it did in the viewing. This classic collection contains a new essay by Alan Bennett, besides the original introductions to A Private Function, Prick Up Your Ears and The Madness of King George. Two companion volumes of Alan Bennetts TV plays are published as Me, Im Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Rolling Home.

Designed to meet the requirements for students at GCSE and A level, this accessible educational edition offers the complete text of The History Boys with a comprehensive study guide. Highlights of Andrew Bruffs guide include:- detailed analyses of character, theme and structure;- a clear introduction to the context of the play and its author;- key quotations and activities both for the student working alone and in the classroom.An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks hes a fool.In Alan Bennetts award-winning and hugely popular play, staffroom rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it, about education and its purpose.

This collection of Alan Bennetts work includes his first play and West End hit, Forty Years On, as well as Getting On, Habeus Corpus, and Enjoy.Forty Years OnAlan Bennetts most gloriously funny play ... a brilliant, youthful perception of a nation in decline, as seen through the eyes of a home-grown school play ... a classic.Daily MailGetting On Winner of the Evening Standard Best Comedy Award in 1971, Getting on is an account of a middle-aged Labour MP, so self-absorbed that he remains blind to the fact that his wife is having an affair with the handyman, his mother-in-law in dying, his son is getting ready to leave home, his best friend thinks him a fool and that to everyone who comes into contact with him he is a self-esteeming joke.Habeus CorpusAfter two elegiac comedies about the decline of old England, Mr Bennett has now written a gorgeously vulgar but densely plotted facre that is a downright celebration of sex and the human body ... a combination of hurtling action with verbal brilliance.GuardianEnjoyEnjoy uncannily foresaw the attitudes to English working-class life now enshrined in themeparks. The classic tug in Bennett between childhod Yorkshire and intellectual sophistication has never been better, or more daringly expressed.Observer

You have to keep your ears open for Alan Bennetts Insurance Man. It had visual impact so powerful that you were in danger of missing some very good lines simply because nobody spoke them in close up; you had to catch them on the wing. And if there was one line that summed up both Bennetts play and Kafkas novel The Trial, which provided some of this framework, that line was "Just because youre the injured party, it doesnt mean youre not guilty".Guardian Kafka himself figures in these two brilliant scripts: one a hilarious comedy, the other a profound and searching drama. This edition includes an introduction by Alan Bennett.

En 1974, cuando Miss Shepherd y su furgoneta se instalaron definitivamente en el jardín de la casa de Alan Bennett, ya hacía varios años que ambas eran conocidas en el barrio. Tras algunos extraños encuentros, y despues de que algunos gamberros comenzaran a atacarla, Alan Bennett le sugirio que pasara las noches en un cobertizo de su jardin. Aunque, afirma el escritor, el jamas se engaño pensando que su impulso obedecia a razones puramente caritativas; aquel sadismo le habia perturbado demasiado, se pasaba el dia vigilando a Miss Shepherd, y asi no podia escribir. Y este fue el comienzo de una convivencia que duraria quince años, hasta la muerte de la excentrica, reservada y digna Miss Shepherd, una persona y una presencia muy reales, y con mas de una identidad y una vida, como descubrio Bennett despues de su muerte. "El hipnotico retrato de una marginada con un espiritu indomable, un texto sostenido a partes iguales por la fascinacion y la compasion. Y tambien por algunos de los estallidos de comicidad mas inteligentes que ha producido la escritura del siglo XX" (The Village Voice)