Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons
London, 1905. A show. A stuttering romance. Two squabbling
actresses.
Is it Shakespeare? Is it Vaudeville?
Not quite. It is Mrs
Morphett’s Macaroons, a satirical play about suffragettes which its
creators - friends and would-be lovers Robbie Robinson and Violet Graham - are
preparing to mount in London’s West End.
It is the play rival actresses Merry and Gaye would kill to be in,
if only they hadn’t insulted the producer all those years ago.
For Robbie and Violet however the road to West End glory is not
smooth. There are backers to be appeased, actors to be tamed and a theatre to
be found; and in the midst of it all a budding romance that risks being
undermined by professional differences.
Never mix business with pleasure?
Maybe, maybe not.
Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/MrsMorphett
Author Bio – Patsy Trench has spent her life working in the theatre. She was an actress for twenty years in theatre and television in the UK and Australia.
She has written scripts for stage and (TV) screen and co-founded The Children’s Musical Theatre of London, creating original musicals with primary school children.
She is the author of three non fiction books about colonial Australia based on her own family history and four novels about women breaking the mould in times past.
Mrs Morphett’s Macaroons is book four in
her ‘Modern Women: Entertaining Edwardians’ series and is set in the world she
knows and loves best. When she is not writing books she teaches theatre
part-time and organises theatre trips for overseas students.
She lives in London. She has two children and so far one grandson.
Social
Media Links –
Facebook: PatsyTrenchWriting
Twitter: @PatsyTrench
Instagram:
claudiafaraday1920
Website: https://patsytrench.com
I'm delighted to welcome Patsy Trench to my blog today, with an insightful piece on why people want to become writers.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
‘The only reason people write is because
they are not wonderful men’
Anthony
J Carson
Why do so many people want to become
writers?
I’ve asked this question of my fellow scribes and the answer
inevitably is ‘I have something important I want to say’.
I’m not sure I would respond quite like that. I’m not at all
sure I write about ‘important’ themes. I began writing books at a time when I
was out of work and looking got something to do, something that did not involve
waiting for someone else to give me a job, for instance.
I also needed to be creative. As a one-time actress, which I
used to be back in the dark ages, it was fun more than anything to spend one’s
time being someone else, for a few hours at least. To wear different hair,
different clothes – often from a different period – walk differently, behave
differently, to be for the time being cleverer, wittier, sexier and altogether
more interesting than I really am. To live in a world created by someone else.
Acting is creative, of course, but it is interpretive. The
real power lies with the writer. As a scriptwriter, as I also once was, you are
part of a collaborative team involving actors, directors, producers, script
editors and all sorts; and among them all – as Robbie, the playwright protagonist
of my latest book Mrs Morphett’s
Macaroons soon realises – your baby, your precious creation, no longer
belongs to you.
But the author, the novelist, owns her baby from start to
finish. An editor can cast an eye over it and, hopefully, improve on it. But
the baby is still essentially the writer’s, for good or ill.
But are all writers ‘not wonderful’? And who was Anthony J
Carson anyway? (I made a note of that quote, and several others about writers,
many years ago, and now I cannot find the context.)
In my case, just as I became an actress because I did not
think I was particularly wonderful as a person, so I suppose I became a writer
because in life I am not particularly articulate. I experience all too many ‘esprits d’escaliers’ – the spirit of the
stairs; you know, when what you really wanted to say only comes to you when you’re
halfway up the stairs and out of the room.
The other reason, in my case and I suspect in the case of
many novelists, is the sheer joy of inventing characters. Characters are the
driving force behind all my books, both the ones I write and the ones I read. I
love them all, even the monsters. I love the way they surprise me, and
occasionally frustrate me when they won’t do what I intended them to do. There’s
no esprit d’escaliers with my
characters, or if there is there’s a good reason for it. I may not be a
wonderful person, or even a wonderful writer. But on the page I can indulge in
a world filled with people I have never known in a world that, for the duration
of the book at least, is altogether more immediate, more exciting and
infinitely more joyous than the one I actually live in.
Do I speak for other writers when I say all this? I’d love
to know.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Giveaway to Win an Ebook of short story anthology All We Need Is
Love. (Open INT)
*Terms and Conditions –
Worldwide entries welcome.
Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.
The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email.
If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner.
Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.
Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information.
This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.
I am not responsible for despatch or
delivery of the prize.
Please note that this giveaway will appear across several blogs which take part in the blog tour for Mrs Morphett's Macaroons.
Chez Maximka is hosting the Rafflecopter gadget for free for the purposes of the book promotion. I have no access to the data collected, selection of the winner or despatch of the prize.
Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment