Alan Bennett's play, The History Boys, won six Tonys recently. And in an interview with the Financial Times he talked about his diaries. Jan Dalley wrote:
The diaries of 2004 record the making of The History Boys in fascinating detail. Work apart, they are a delightful smorgasbord of sparkling mundane descriptions - trapping mice, visiting churches, making small-talk with a road-sweeper - but always with a Bennettian twist. Blackberrying along the Yorkshire country lanes he loves, the juice-stained hands of his companion remind him of a 1940s murder film.
It's the last sentence in the quotation that flummoxed me for a moment. I had an image of Bennett in a country lane responding to emails on his BlackBerry: of course it didn't make sense. Then I realised Dalley was referring to picking the fruit, which even I have done as a child.
Innocence gone--we can't read it that way any more. Everything changes....
Innocence gone--we can't read it that way any more. Everything changes....
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