England’s Elizabeth, by Michael Dobson & Nicola J. Watson. Publish ed by Oxford University Press Inc., New York. 348 pages. $29.95 hardcover.
THE YEAR 2003 MARKS the 400th anniversary of the death of England’s most glamorous and romantic queen. But the current commemorative events and publications are far from the first memorials to “Gloriana.” England’s Elizabeth takes a lively, entertaining look at the many reincarnations of Elizabeth since her seeming demise in 1603. In their look back, Dobson and Watson include depictions of the Queen in art, on stage, and in the cinema in both Britain and in the U.S., where she has developed an image slightly different but no less interesting than she has in her own realm.
Not a history, this book makes no attempt to “strip myth from fact,” but rather enjoys the myths as an entertaining and fascinating part of the Queen’s legacy, worthy of study in their own right. The rich vein of tradition and popular culture this book embraces, combined with the authors’ witty and engaging style, make this a very enjoyable read.
—BRUCE HEYDT
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Old London Bridge: The Story of the Longest Inhabited Bridge in Europe, by Patricia Pierce. Distributed in the U.S. by Trafalgar Square, North Pomfret, Vermont 05053. 344 pages. $13.95 paperback.
MANOR HOUSE COMES TO PBS
If you’ve managed to avoid most of the “reality” shows on the telly, here’s one worth watching. In Manor House, 19 volunteers live the carefully prescribed—and proscribed—roles of a wealthy family of five and their servants in Edwardian England for three months. The setting is beautiful, 109-room Manderston in the English countryside, with almost none of the conveniences we’ve come to rely on. Costuming looks authentic, down to and including the skivvies. As you might expect, those waited on have a much easier time living their roles than those doing the waiting—16-hour days of non-stop labour with no time off tend to wear on one. The servants have a particularly hard time adjusting to having virtually no rights, to speak of. The six episodes bring into sharp focus the rigid British class system at the dawn of the 20th century and the limitations it put on both the upper and lower classes. It’s fascinating television. Manor House debuts April 28 (check local listings).
— JUDY P. SOPRONYI
FOR MORE THAN SIX CENTURIES, Old London Bridge represented the thriving heart of London. The scene of commerce and battle, ceremony and romance, it remained a vibrant focal point for 20 generations of Londoners. Life and death flowed over and under it. Ms. Pierce, who has been fascinated by that bridge, in all its manifestations, since she was a small girl, tells its complex story with great and small flourishes.
Old London Bridge—with its drawbridge, 19 arches, and 19 piers, not to mention many shops, dwellings, and a chapel—stood majestic through the centuries and inspired most everyone who saw it. This book relates its story, the story of its inhabitants, and the story of how it came to occupy such a unique place in folk memory and London’s heritage.
With excellent drawings and text, a chronology, a bibliography, and a listing of where to see images of the bridge, this book ,has a lot to offer to those who have been to London, as well as those who have travelled to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where a remnant of Rennie’s Bridge still stands.
Londoners, of course, remember many of the bridge’s triumphs and tragedies. After Sir Francis Drake and the British fleet defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, there was a grand procession to St. Paul’S. The Cathedral’s lower battlements were decorated with ten flags and a streamer taken from the Spanish warships. The latter, with “an image of our Ladie, with her sonne in her armes,” surmounted the pulpit during the sermon. The next day these trophies of war were transferred to the most prestigious site in the City: the Great Stone Gate on London Bridge. However, the Bridge was also the place where the heads of executed criminals were displayed—as many as 34 heads on any given day. At the proper time, a bridge attendant popped them into the Thames, to be forgotten, or rediscovered by curious fishermen.
London had at least one bridge over the Thames as early as the Bronze Age, about 1500 BC, followed by another during the Roman occupation. Around AD 1209 the first incarnation of the true Old London Bridge was built. Queen Elizabeth II officially dedicated today’s London Bridge in 1973.
On a typical day in 1811, 90,000 people on foot, 800 wagons, 2,000 carts and drays, 1,300 coaches, 500 gigs and “tax carts,” and 800 people on horseback, crossed over the bridge. John Rennie’s new London Bridge replaced it in 1827 and saw even heavier use. By the mid-20th century, Rennie’s bridge showed signs of decay and obsolescence, with peaks of nearly 20,000 pedestrians and 3,000 cars per hour. When it was remodelled and partly replaced, sections of it that were no longer in use were deconstructed and shipped to Lake Havasu, Arizona. The McCulloch Oil Corporation bought it and reassembled it as a tourist attraction.
All of London’s bridges continue to be key elements in British tourism, of course, and the Old London Bridge’s story goes on, as well it should.
—DAVID MARCOU
LONDON THEATRE SCENE
INTO THE NEW LONDON (0870 890 0141) comes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s memorable Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. The theatre on Drury Lane suits the musical, which features a large cast with alluring settings and memorable songs.
Arsenic and Old Lace (Strand, 0870 060 2335) was written in 1941, was a long-running hit on Broadway, then in London. The actors go wild with poses, double takes, and pratfalls. It still works as a clever comedy, giving lots of fun.
National Theatre shows are in repertory, so check dates before you book. Jerry Springer The Opera (Lyttelton, 020 7452 3000) and Shakespeare’s Henry V along with Anything Goes, sparkly in a new version, are in the Olivier. It’s likely this show will go to the West End. A finely written new play, Honour, is notable.
The award-winning musical Our House (Cambridge, 0870 890 1102) is a young people’s show with an unusual approach, featuring two versions of the same tale, with big songs and drama set around a typical London home. The music is by Madness.
My Brilliant Divorce (Apollo, 0870 890 1101) is Dawn French’s new one-woman show. Geraldine Aron’s play is serviceable, but the fine line to follow between being funny and touching isn’t Ms. French’s forte.
Tell Me On A Sunday (Gielgud, 0870 890 1105) started as a record in 1979. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s one-woman musical of a romantic girl who sings her way from London to New York to LA is a charm. Three Sisters, one of Anton Chekhov’s most famous plays, is now in the West End (Play house, 020 7369 1785) in a new version.
Mum’s The Wold (Albery, 020 7369 1740) started in Vancouver 10 years ago and is about children and how they can wreck your life. It’s on now and features six women headed by witty Jenny Éclair, Imogen Stubbs, and singer Carol Decker.
Tommy Cooper is the subject: the comedian is revived in Jus’Like That! (Garrick, 0870 890 1104) with Jerome Flynn—and six dancing girls!
Sexual Perversity in Chicago returns after 25 years (Comedy Theatre 020 7369 1731) from May 14. David Mamet’s play concerns two couples on the lookout for love.
The Stratford Festival in Warwickshire offers Shakespeare in repertory at two theatres. They are The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, Richard III, Titus Andronicus and As You Like It (0870 609 1110). The Festival is three hours by car or train from London.
—MICHAEL LEECH
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