Alan Bennett: humanity to the rescue
Alan Bennett’s work is guiding me gently through life. I remember his black and white face from the telly alongside Peter Cook’s and Dudley Moore’s in the 1960s. I don’t remember the 1970s and the 1980s are best forgotten. But he made a ‘comeback’ in the 1990s, when Talking Heads reminded me of ‘home’ and the VHS tapes my mother sent to me in Hamburg seemed like Red Cross parcels. It was reassuring to know Bennett had crossed at least one generational divide, and we both continue to appreciate his uniquely northern take on life. I’ve almost finished Untold Stories; he reads me his short stories, incongruously, from my iPod; and I went to see The History Boys recently at the Lido. One of the many qualities I find in Bennett — as well as his touching modesty, observational precision and flair for humour — is his nostalgia for a world, with Leeds at its epicentre, before it went to the dogs. You sense, not his acquiescence, but that quiet desperation I think Thoreau was on about. I want to tell him (fantasising as I do of an altogether unlikely meeting on public transport) that, thanks to people like him, it’s not all bad: there are still people out here who care, who value art, state-subsidised healthcare, old movies and a few other old-fashioned values. But then, it’s not the people who read his books who need to care. The ones who turned a blind eye until their country looked like something out of Orwell, if they have even heard of Alan Bennett, are not likely to be reading his books. Or any books for that matter. And I wouldn’t know what to tell him about that.
posted by Chris Bell at 1:50 PM
6 Comments:
You don't have to be a Brit (oh, all right, English - Bennett is not very Scottish or Welsh) to like Bennett.
My brother - who works for the publishing company which does Bennett's work - got me 'Untold Stories' when it came out. . A great book - read it right through, dipped into it several times since.
Loved 'Writing Home' as well (he is very good on Larkin, a kindred spirit, leaving aside trivia like politics).
I've learnt to appreciate Bennett as I have got older.
But I disagree that Leeds has gone to the dogs.
It is a booming, prosperous city, with fine shops and a city undergoing fantastic renewal.
The capital of the north.
Now as for racists, as outlined in that article.
There may be National Front or British National Party skinheads there, but what is more worrying is the muslim terrorists that were raised in Leeds.
Islamofacism is more of a threat to our freedoms than any BNP bovverboy ever will be.
Darren, Darren! I did not say or mean that Leeds per se has gone to the dogs, rather that it is the epicentre of the Bennett Universe. I was talking about the world. But since you earmark Leeds, wasn't it the city (at least in the late 1990s) which held the record for the most burglaries in England? Around Hyde Park, I believe.
I knew that if I went to my home page I could randomly find an article that pointed to urban decay in Britain, and lo! The skinhead one was the first I clicked on.
I'm sure, though, that the BNP would be very touched to hear you defending them. Perhaps they'll send you a Christmas card this year. I note too, how in your book, the "skinheads" are merely "bovverboys", while the Moslems are "terrorists". You, of all people, should know better than to thus dismiss swathes of the population. But you should also know that there is more to not going to the dogs than being an ostensibly "booming, prosperous city, with fine shops and a city undergoing fantastic renewal". You might consider that both skinhead and Moslem has perhaps seen rather too much of the Hyde Park/Hanover Square form of booming prosperity in Leeds. Fine shops will not stop the underprivileged biting the hand that neglects them.
Oh, and Rob: I hope you didn't think I was suggesting you have to be British or English to appreciate Alan Bennett. I simply had no choice in the matter of my place of birth.
Crhis,
Nope, wasn't suggesting you were saying that. It's a comment I've often heard though, and as a fifth generation NZer on both sides of the family I've found it perplexing.
the nostalgia of teachers fondling boys, but it being OK cos he was a good teacher. Mkay, afraid I dont share that reverence
So you've seen The History Boys then, sagenz? Fortunately, life is not quite as cut-and-dried or as black and white as you'd like to make it. Reverence for a writer doesn't have to extend to condoning everything they write about. But simply because you can't get your head around it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You neither have to consider a writer's ideas exclusively right nor consider them to be contagious to revere them for their work.
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