Wednesday 15 March 2017

Thank you, thank you FET

Enjoyment, interest, style, sense of life, art of the theatre.
Seriously as Sally Bradshaw and I bemoaned Brexit, this evening transported us out of our misery, which was needed.
Thank you Donald Douglas for your contacts and for knowing Lucy Fleming and Simon Williams who came to Les Cabannes tonight to give us " Posting Letters to the Moon"
Tonight Lucy Fleming daughter of Celia Johnson and Peter Fleming read us letters found after parents died  and after the performance gave us chance to ask questions.
An evening of " gentle" entertainment which I loved. There was some discussion afterwards "who were the letters kept for?" For me I imagine as Peter Fleming  had saved them and brought them home, then they were wrapped in ribbon.  I imagine that Celia Johnson read them from time to time simply to remember those early  romantic times; romantic even though separated. Simon Williams thinks they were kept to be read by children and grandchildren and that is also a lovely thought.
How I wish I had family letters like this.
I was disappointed not to hear more from Peter Fleming who like his brother Ian was a brilliant writer but understood that his letters from South East Asia would be subject to scrutiny from the War Office.... shush walls have ears.
As  retired booksellers the name Peter Fleming and particularly the book  Brazilian Adventure are clear in our minds. One wonders if Peter had written fiction as his brother Ian Fleming did, could he have been as famous. Certainly his writing was as good.
Celia Johnson, in fact Dame Celia Johnson will always be remembered for the film  "Brief Encounter"in 1945, gosh was it really 1945. A beautiful gentle actress who knew and worked with the great and good of her period,
Lucy Fleming was really the star of the evening as her mother had composed most of the letters and Lucy presented them to us with charm. Simon Williams did a sterling job of holding it all together.
It really was a lovely " gentil" evening  with all Brexshit worries left behind.
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