I Have A Huge Crush On Simon Schama

There. I've said it. I mean it. No, I don't want to take it back. He's marvelous.
I could just listen to him for hours. Talk to me Simon. I'm listening. Talk to me about England. I want to hear all the stories.

Oh, wait, it's not Simon Schama in my living room. It's the dvd production of "A History of Britain". There's Simon, tromping through the countryside, telling us all the wonderful stories of British history with a flavor of "I was there and have all the juicy gossip." It's delicious, and just plain gorgeous.

Watch the dvds, read the books, and you'll have a crush on Simon, too. I promise.


Here's a bit of one of my favorite parts...

Who's Next? Prince Hal, I Think.

Okay, Charleen, we'll go back in time a bit to Henry the Fifth. I can't think of any popular media for Prince Hal except the two films of Shakespeare's play--Olivier's version (1944), and Kenneth Branagh's version (1989). NINETEEN EIGHTY NINE!!?!? My gosh, I've gotten old. That's almost 20 years ago.

Now, I won't include here any film versions of Henry IV parts 1 & 2. Granted, Prince Hal was indeed in there, but only as Prince of Wales until the very end of Part 2.

There's always been loads of discussion out there comparing and contrasting the two films in the context of when they were made. Olivier's version was done when the world was near the end of World War II. Times were hard in England, but at least by that point we kind of knew how the war in Europe was going to turn out. It was a patriotic ode to England, and seems to be a glamorous spectacle meant to celebrate the forthcoming victory in Europe. It was, again, Olivier at his stilted best. This is alsothe one the English teachers in high school got for us to reward our learning the "Once more into the breach" speech from the play. Very little dirt or blood or battle. It was a pretty film, showing us that not only could the English kick the poo out of the French, they could do it without getting a speck of dirt on the shining armor. I remember reading somewhere that Olivier tried to do the play on stage just prior to the war and (no doubt due to the sentiment against the war,) was practically booed out of the country, but when the film came out near the end of the war, people went crazy over it. It won awards, but you can follow the link and read about it at Internet Movie Database.

Ah, now to Branagh's film, some 45 years later.

Thanks to that Shakespeare teacher from high school, (I will always remember her fondly) I ran to the theatre to see Henry V when Branagh did it. It was almost like hearing Beethoven for the first time. It was love at first sight. It was one of those moments when you knew the world would never be the same. (Okay, I'm getting a little carried away with the melodrama.)

It wasn't a romantic thing for Branagh, but for his adaptation and obvious love for the play and the medium in which he worked. For this production, Olivier was pure stage and Branagh is pure film.

The supporting cast is another one of those who's who of British actors, and they are also the ones you will see more than once when Branagh takes on Shakespeare. (See Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Othello) I will say unabashedly that I love this film. It's full of mess and dirt and battle and blood and light and dark. It's a wonderous spectacle, and his version of the St. Crispin's Day speech prior to the battle of Agincourt still makes me want to jump up and cheer.

Make your own comparisons--the Olivier version:

Now the Branagh version:

Forget this blog. My heart's in the trim. I'm signing off tonight to go fight with the King.

Richard III Part II

Now for a few books. There are more than you would think out there. I'll start with a few fiction recommendations, and then dive head first into the non-fiction. A bit of disclosure: I probably won't list much that portrays Richard as a hunchbacked, mad, bloodthirsty serial killer. Be warned. I also talked so much about Shakespeare's play in the last post that I won't list it here again.



1. Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
This is the classic mystery, written in 1951. An inspector is laid up in hospital with a broken leg from his last case. He is a good judge of faces, and can usually tell if the face belongs in jail or on the bench. A friend brings him a stack of prints--one of which is a portrait of Richard III. The inspector can't reconcile what he has learned in school about wicked King Richard with the face in the portrait. He has a young researcher do the footwork while he does the thinking, and off you go on a ride that's as exciting as any exploding car chase could be. There's no doubt which side of the Richardian argument Tey is on. She also writes on the idea that the victor is the one who writes history. Run out and get it right now. It's a quick, fun read that you won't be able to put down, and is thick with names any anglophile will know. Watch out for the wicked Bishop Morton...

2. The Sunne In Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman
This is probably the most well-known fictional work about Richard. It's on the table, but I've not read it yet. It's huge and supposed to be an engaging work.


3. A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith
This is another five pounder, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a story inspired by the fact that Richard had two bastard children acknowledged during his lifetime and there are rumors of a third that was not acknowledged before his death. It is said the children were born prior to Richard's marriage to Anne. It is not known if they had the same or different mothers, but this novel creates a story around the children. Pure brain candy, in my opinion, but well-researched and high quality brain candy.

4. The "Rose of York" series by Sandra Worth. I haven't read these either, but am itching to get my fingers on them. There are three titles: Love and War; Crown of Destiny; and Fall From Grace. On the author's website, she explains that she doesn't agree with the Tudor view of Richard either, and found the "real" Richard fascinating.

5. Another good choice appears to be The Seventh Son by Reay Tannahill. Susan Higginbotham (who has a better blog than I could even dream about called "The Unromantic Richard III") recommends this book, and the blurb on Amazon.com makes it sound pretty good. My library doesn't own it, and it seems to be out of print, only available from independent sellers on Amazon. Oh dear, I'm going to want a copy of this...

Okay Charleen, that's enough fiction to get started. My favorite? Daughter of Time, of course. It was the first time I'd read a book that validated my suspicion that the stereotype of Richard was a little fishy, even if the book was fiction. Thank you Josephine Tey. You opened up a whole new world to me. You are also responsible for some pretty naughty behaviour when I walk past the tomb of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey...but the less said about that, the better.

I'm not even going to try to make a bibliography of the non-fiction books, Charleen. Go to Susan Higginbotham's site if you want some decent Richard III non-fiction. I'm crying uncle.

Richard III

I don't think this will follow a chronological order--it probably should, but I'd just end up all over the place anyway, so I may as well start that way. It will also be purely subjective.

Where to start?

With Richard III, of course.

I have to make this distinction--I love Shakespeare's play. The character is written so wonderfully wicked that it's fun to watch. The wall between the stage and audience is broken and you are made complicit to his deeds. However, I don't feel this caricature has any relation to the real Richard whatsoever. The only thing I find they have in common is that they were both named Richard, and they were both English. Beyond that, for me, the similarity ends.

There have been several film productions of Will's play, and I'll list those momentarily. I'm not aware of any film out there about the real Richard, as opposed to Shakespeare's caricature.
Personally, I like to think Richard was a good soldier and administrator and would have made a good King had he not been killed in battle so early in his reign. (The last English Monarch to be killed in battle, as a matter of fact.) I probably shouldn't have gotten into the "Richard is a good guy/Richard is evil incarnate" debate here. Ooops. For more info on the Pro-Richard side, check out the Richard III Society's website: http://www.richardiii.net/


I'll try to remember to post links to either Internet Movie Database for the films or Amazon.com for the books.

Now, on to the films:

1. There was a silent film version of Richard III released in 1912. I have not yet watched it, but it's widely available either for purchase or maybe even at your local library. Mine has it. It stars Frederick Warde as Richard. The copy we have at the library says it's the earliest surviving American feature film, has been restored by AFI and is scored by Ennio Morricone.

2. The classic Olivier film is widely available. The cast is a who's who of British actors, and even though the sets seem cheesy to our 21st century eyes, it's still a great version. It's Olivier at his height, playing Shakespeare's arch villain with all the stilted glory of the type of Shakespeare performance that frightens students to this day.

3. In 1983, the BBC produced a Richard III in their "The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare" series. It stars Ron Cook as Richard. I've found the series fairly good, so it's worth a try.

4. I'll preface this by saying that I absolutely loathe productions of Shakespeare plays set in different time periods, or in modern costume. However, in my opinion, the best version of this play on film is the 1995 production with Sir Ian McKellan playing Richard. Even though he is much older than the character, even though some of the other actors couldn't quite pull it off, and even though it's one of those "let's be artsy and set the story in a World War II alternate universe" productions, Sir Ian plays the part so well, it's a guilty pleasure. It's another production full of popular actors, and is fun to watch.

5. It doesn't really belong here, because it's not really about Richard the man, but there was a documentary done a few years back by Al Pacino and other actors called "Looking for Richard". It's more about the experience of acting Shakespeare's villain and how the story is still relevant today. It's quite interesting.

6. Okay, so this is a television show instead of a film, but you have to love it anyway. The first episode of the first Blackadder series with Rowan Atkinson stars Peter Cook as Richard III. Absolutely hilarious. Run out and watch it. Quickly. Do it right now.

Is there anyone out there besides me who would love to see Kenneth Branagh do this film?? He's done a stage production, but I would give up chocolate for a year if I could see him do this on film.

Enough for now. I'll put books up later. There are tons of fiction and some good non-fiction as well.

Make a Start

Picture one of those cartoon bubbles over my head with the following text...
"Hmmm. How to start...Blame it on Charleen, I guess."

I am one of those Americans who should have been born somewhere in Britain. If you were to visit my home, you would think a mad Anglophile lives there. You would be right.

Naturally one has friends who feel the same. One of those dear friends is Charleen. She was in England recently and while on a bus wrote a note to herself that I should set up a blog listing films and books about British Monarchs. That's not as weird as it sounds. Well, okay, it IS as weird as it sounds, but it makes sense if you know us. I'm a freakish Librarian with a head full of British history trivia, and I eat films and books on British history like a teething toddler eats Cheerios.

A blog sounded like fun, so here you are, Charleen. I'll start putting the fun stuff up in the next post...Hmm.....where will I start? I think It'll be with one of the Plantagenets. Do you know who I'm talking about??