The twisted loyalties and violence in teenage gangs is laid bare. This play was originally published in the volume Charged; a collection of plays about the lives of women in the criminal justice system; and was commissioned and premiered by Clean Break; a theatre and education company working with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.
#3892225 in eBooks 2015-06-12 2015-06-12File Name: B00ZITTZEA
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Simon Callow; the famous British actor/author gives us a vivid and entertaining portrait of the immortal BozBy C. M MillsSimon Callow is a Renaissance man of many parts! Callow is a talented actor and has become something of a lay expert on Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Covering the memorable literary life of the greatest novelist in less than 400 pages is quite a feat! Callow manages to tell the familiar tale of Dickens with panache by showing the reader how much Dickens considered himself an actor upon the stage; in his many public readings and in his remarkable novels. The Dickens novels are: The Pickwick Papers; Oliver Twist; The Old Curiosity Shop: Dombey and Sons; Barnaby Rudge; David Copperfield: Bleak House: Little Dorrit: A Tale of Two Cities; Great Expectations; Hard Times; Our Mutual Friend: Martin Chuzzlewit and the uncompleted The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens was a poor child born to a impecunious Naval Office father named John. His father was imprisoned for debt. Young Dickens was forced to work in a blacking factory; a lawyers clerk and a shorthand reporter in the British House of Commons. He became famous following his publication of "Pickwick Papers." Dickens wed Catherine Hogarth and was the father of ten children. He traveled to American in 1842 and 1868. Dickens had a mistress the actress Ellen Ternan. She first meet him while the two were acting in Wilkie Collins play "The Frozen Deep" in Manchestere. She may have had a child by Dickens but the scholars are unable to verify this fact. Dickens died in 1870 worn out from his reading tours and increasingly poor health. Dickens was a workaholic who walked many miles each day; enjoyed parties and family time and mesmerism. Dickens stands today on the pinnacle alone with Shakespeare as the greatest English author of all time. The book is filled with memorable facts and insights into the eclectic and complex mind and strong spirit of Charles Dickens. Among the quotes culled from the book are:On his experience in the London blacking factory: "He had learned the lessons of solitude and self-dependency."-p. 26"On his own admission; he was rarely out of love in his early days and; Dickens being Dickens; it was an overwhelming; an obsessional; a cataclysmic experience."-p. 44On Dickens wife Catherine: "Kate was not best pleased to find out quite how much of his time Charles gave over to his work."-p. 54"He believed profoundly in God and revered the figure of Christ (though denying his divinity)...but he had little truck with organized religion finally settling on that most secular of professions Unitarianism..."-p. 159"Dickens reading was avid; unsystematic and idiosnycratic which was part of what made him an original."-p. 196"Dickens never read reviews..."-p. 247"Charles Dickens remains and will always be a leading player on the stage of our imagination."-p. 351 Callow makes an egregious error when he discusses Dickens meeting with the President of the United States in 1868. Callow is wrong to identify the POTUS as Andrew Jackson instead of Andrew Johnson. Proofreading should have corrected this howler prior to publication! If you want to study Dickens in depth then turn to the excellent biographies of Michael Slater; Peter Ackroyd; Claire Tomalin ; Edgar Johnson and John Forster (Dickens closest friend for most of his life).. If you want ; however; a short biography of the author which will give you the basics of his life then Callow will punch your ticket. Well done and a joy to read!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. What the Dickens!By IsmeneI bought this book after hearing an interview with Ralph Fiennes about his film on Dickens. He suggested Simon Callow as an expert on the author; and he was right. Callow is knowledgeable about Dickens; theatre; and Victorian Life. The only reason this does not have five stars is that so much has already been written that there is not that much new to offer onCharles Dickens. Callow does his own Dickens one-man show which is on DVD and quite wonderful!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Dickens and theatreBy Michael G. EdwardsFor an old amateur actor who had read all of Dickens by the time he was 25; and who had admired Simon Callow for many years; this book was a great joy. It clarified my own inchoate musings about Dickens love of performance; and made me go back to the originals so as to read them -aloud! The Callow book sits well with the stage performances of that other Dickens expert; Miriam Margolyes; seen recently in Hobart.
