My review of Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King, by Antonia Fraser

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King

by Antonia Fraser 

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

While Antonia Fraser is perhaps my all-time favourite biographer, certain of her subjects have not interested me greatly. This, in my opinion, is one of her best for its sheer literary quality.

I could happily soak up Lady Fraser's eloquence on any old thing. So, this not being my favourite or most familiar royal court or period, I relished the opportunity to read her elaboration on it, to gain insight into an epoch I have previously found drier and more awkward to penetrate than others.

I pride myself as an aficionado on other times and reigns while humbly conceding my novice status on this. Hence my need to be gently nurtured into it by fine, readable writing.

Fraser's considerate genealogical charts were also of immeasurable assistance as I flipped back and forth between text and reference to keep up with the many similar yet unfamiliar names. 

This work stylistically transcends many of her others; she has matured so beautifully as a writer. Not since her 1969 Mary, Queen of Scots have I been so enraptured by her words, sentences and human insight - only this way have I learnt much history. It is ultimately, for this reader, the way the topic at hand is presented rather than the topic itself.

I spent weeks on this this. Can only compare it with immersing myself in the most splendidly sumptuous candlelit aromatic bath I've ever had. I re-emerged suitably enlightened, pampered and eternally grateful.

Not the most groundbreaking educational journey of my life, but remedial therapy of the highest order and an invaluable preliminary glimpse into what I still find a less fascinating world than medieval and Tudor England.

My review of Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank, by Jean Rhys

Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank

by Jean Rhys

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

No Jean Rhys fan would want to let this priceless opportunity pass.

Included is her fateful, first ever published collection 'Stories from the Left Bank', a glimpse of the legend in the making, as a young aspiring novice writer - even then she had the intuitive brilliance that made her adored by her select, intimate following. That her lover Ford Maddox Ford originally published these was clearly no pillow favour - he genuinely saw a rare, unique voice that would echo down through the ages after he gave her that start.

In these earliest of her efforts, which brought her by chance into the arms of her future mentor and lover and kicked off her literary career, we see into the Paris of the 1920s, with its cobblestoned roads, quaint streetlights, underground clubs, bars and restaurants and the English and American arts circles inhabiting this time and place alongside the city's gritty, colourful native characters. 

The more modern stories, written in her maturing years, are equally fascinating albeit for different reasons, her voice having gained greater distinction, her take on life the same as ever and her heels dug relentlessly into her own deeply personal literary ground.

Breathtaking work by one of our most underrated English language greats, a writer decades ahead of her time who yanks at your heartstrings and screams into your ear with a polite, understated whisper.

Like every one of her books, I ached to keep reading and mourned pathetically after finishing it. So much so that I returned to it three times and it still sits in my cupboard awaiting its next round someday.

My review of Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball, by Stefan Kanfer

Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball

by Stefan Kanfer

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

TV comedy mostly irritates me, with a few notable exceptions, one in particular being Lucille Ball.

She had that distinct something. I only needed look at her to be triggered into fits of belly laughter. It's a rare gift, we tend to think. But as with so many such greats, Ball's comedic craft was actually the result of decades of hard work. There was little spontaneity in what she excelled at, it was the product of gruelling repetition, so many times did she practice every smallest detail for any scene or sketch - frequently driving her fellow cast members to despair. Such is the requisite professional devotion shared by illusionists, mime artists, circus performers, speciality dancers and great singers.

It brightened my week immensely reading about this fascinating, committed artiste who, in my toddlerhood, was portrayed by a tiny carrot-headed marionette dancing across my screen in sequins and high heels, in the opening credits. She was the only screen persona guaranteed to have me rolling around the carpet. Watching blurry old reruns still has the same effect on me, so timeless is the joy she invokes in the human psyche. Her apprenticeship involved learning on the job, on the pre-TV big screen, in supporting roles to legends like the Marx Brothers. 

As an adult I've had passing opportunity to catch up on even her earlier work, which I'd missed out on watching her as I was growing up. It was therefore great to read the backstory of this entertainment history-making trailblazer, dubbed in an earlier Hollywood incarnation "Queen of the Bs".

A thorough, well written biography with great photographs.

My review of Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England, by Robert Hutchinson

Elizabeth's Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England

by Robert Hutchinson

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The icing on the cake for those hooked on Tudor history. This lurking figure has been portrayed as a sinister presence at Elizabeth's court, but one who saved her oft rocky reign from doom and disaster on many occasions. We learn more here about why Gloriana's reign involved such diplomatic intrigue and tightrope walking.

Walsingham's brilliant if callous ensnarement of Mary Queen of Scots, heading her entrapment and setting her up under escalating political necessity, is engrossingly fleshed out to the last detail in this biography. We also read of his intelligence operations penetrating foreign military preparation of the ultimately unsuccessful Spanish Armada.

Walsingham rose from near obscurity, albeit from a well-connected family of gentry. On leaving university aged twenty he travelled Europe before embarking on a career in law. Returning from self-imposed exile in France on Catholic Queen ('Bloody') Mary I's demise, he was elected to Elizabeth's first parliament in 1559. He became ambassador to France in the 1570s, witnessing the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, an experience permanently reinforcing his anti-Catholic stance.

A high-profile pro-Protestant in a post-reformation England constantly threatened by reinstatement of Catholicism, he became one of an elite diplomatic inner circle.

His 'cabinet' directed the Elizabethan state and oversaw foreign, domestic and religious policy. As Elizabeth's principal secretary he supported exploration, colonisation, English maritime strength and the plantation of Ireland. He successfully worked towards uniting England and Scotland under one crown.

Readers of all things Elizabethan must surely cherish this book. Neither an especially charismatic nor sympathetic character to document, Walsingham is deftly humanised by the erudite Robert Hutchinson whose less florid narrative style than that of some 'popular historians' rewards the reading effort.

The crucial extra dimension for readers of this period.

My review of Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman, by Caryl Flinn

Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman

by Caryl Flinn

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

It was when I heard an old industry anecdote that I became as interested in the woman as 'that' voice I'd played over and over as a mere stagestruck slip of thing lip synching into a hairbrush in my bedroom mirror:

Scene:

Ethel Merman's dressing room.

Time:

Production briefing after first dress rehearsal.

Junior Producer (timidly, as he backs out of her door):

Oh, and what, um, were you thinking of ... doing with your hair, Ms Merman?

Ethel Merman:

Washin' it!

Needless to say, when I noticed this book luring me like a siren on a shelf, I snatched it away without hesitation.

This straight-talking stenographer from Queens, NYC, started out singing in 1920s midtown Manhattan clubs, after working her office day job. Inspired by vaudeville shows she watched as a youngster, at home she had practiced emulating the voices of stars like Fanny Brice and Sophie Tucker. Her own belting mezzo-soprano voice, however, turned out to be undisguisable.

As singers performed without microphones when Ethel started out, she had an advantage later. She famously never took a singing lessons and Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin advised her never to.

She became tagged the 'First Lady of musical comedy' after launching many now standard Broadway musical numbers, including showstoppers crafted for her by greats like Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim.

Her signature repertoire included: 'I Got Rhythm', 'Everything's Coming Up Roses', 'Some People', 'Rose's Turn', 'I Get a Kick Out of You', 'It's De-Lovely', 'Friendship', 'You're the Top', 'Anything Goes' and her eventual theme song, 'There's No Business Like Show Business'.

Merman was one of a kind, salt of the earth, a grafter and a trooper who never lost touch with her humble origins. Even so, she paradoxically somehow became the ultimate Broadway diva. Like others before and since, she had earned this status, this special place in theatrical history and, once on her throne, she defended her creative prerogative as does a lioness her cubs. 

This is a thorough, well penned biography, not a fast or trashy read. It gives an extensive history of an unlikely diva, including her formative phase, long before she had any inkling of her legendary destiny.

A great book about a fierce and funny woman you'd never want to have in your ear.

My review of Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, by Gerald Clarke

Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland

by Gerald Clarke

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

As irresistible as its subject, this fine biography had me grinning for weeks, occasionally gasping and, now and then, just a tad teary.

Much has been written about Judy Garland, some of it even true. This, however, is well documented material that we instinctively trust to be uninvented.

Judy's artistic and aesthetic insecurities sometimes robbed her from knowing how widely loved she was. Nor was this not uncommon Hollywood syndrome helped by her not uncommon addiction. She did, however, know deep down, which was how she was able to reach out and have live concert audiences eating from the palm of her hand right up to the end. Some fans turned on her as she unravelled, but more remained steadfast in their loyalty.

The little Francis Gumm and her performing vaudeville sisters had precarious moments in what now, in retrospect, appears an earthy, well rooted professional start. They learned the ropes, on the job, from being knee high.

When Judy went on to Hollywood and attended school with other young aspirants, she was the ugly duckling of the class and never really forgot that. Of course, we see her as beautiful in many of her big screen hits, but she was 'different' in her beauty. (So many demographics related to this.)

Her common touch was priceless, her voice incredible. When Fred Astaire called her 'the greatest entertainer who ever lived' he was not consciously exaggerating. We assume she never got to hear those kind words.

Judy won a Juvenile Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. She had Academy Award nominations for Best Actress in the remake of A Star Is Born (1954) and Best Supporting Actress in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). She remains the youngest recipient (at 39) of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry. She was posthumously honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

We wonder whether she'd have laughed out loud at suggestions that her demise was the final straw that triggered the Stonewall riots, giving rise to the modern gay liberation movement. Or whether she'd have been flattered.

Her legacy includes the precious recordings of her legendary singing and films - not to mention some pretty legendary offspring. And to help cement that legacy is this decently penned biography, to hopefully put lesser, more gossipy works back where they belong.