Peter Parker

My X account was hacked twice. Now I have regained control and warn everyone not to click on any links in messages like the one below. Huge apologies for all this. Please make sure you have your 2-factor authentication turned on to avoid my fate.

“An actor is often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not [...] and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerise a group of innocents.” Alec Guinness, born 2 April 1914 #alecguinness #acting

“Your ‘Youth’ has fallen from its shelf, And you have fallen, you yourself. They knocked a soldier on the head, I mourn the poet who fell dead. And yet I think it was by chance, By oversight you died in France.” Isaac Rosenberg, killed in action 1 April 1918 #isaacrosenberg

@eggsbened @BBCRadio4 No shame at all and thank you for buying the book. I'm afraid there's a 2nd volume (with the 'Victim' and 'The Servant' material in it)... both out in paperback at the end of May.

@PParkerWriting @BBCRadio4 How bizarre. nb Shamefully, although it is sitting on my coffee table* I still have not read Some Men In London. But at least I have it! *The book pile was NOT adjusted for this photo.

“No American company would have dared to make it, and a very few were brave, their word, enough to screen it in the States. We have come a long way now … anything goes. Which is a great pity.” Dirk Bogarde, born 28 March 1921, on the film Victim (1961) #dirkbogarde #victim

“Then, as my soul to heaven, her first seat, takes flight, And earth-born body in the earth shall dwell, So fall my sins, that all may have their right, To where they’are bred, and would press me, to hell...” John Donne, died 31 March 1631 #johndonne #poem

@eggsbened @BBCRadio4 I had to write a long letter to the BBFC about the importance of 'Victim' before they allowed me to quote from the papers they hold on its making in my 'Some men in London'. Janet Green is a fascinating person about whom very little seems to be known.

@PParkerWriting @BBCRadio4 It’s a brief item but happy to have done it. I subsequently heard that fascinating radio play when it went out. As you may have seen hereabouts, I also included my response to the film when, way back in 2011 I wrote about the conundrum that was Bogarde. independent.co.uk/arts-entertain…

@eggsbened @BBCRadio4 Both pieces very nice. I expect you know the passage about Bogarde in John Fraser's outrageous and very entertaining - though I'm not sure how reliable - autobiography?

@TomTommallow That hadn't struck me, but of course you are right! How many blues songs being 'I [something something] this morning'?

Rather like a blues song.

“I ran out in the morning, when the air was clean and new, And all the grass was glittering and grey with autumn dew, I ran out to the apple tree and pulled an apple down, And all the bells were ringing in the old grey town.” Frances Cornford, born 30 March 1886 #francescornford

@eggsbened @BBCRadio4 Oh good. I'll listen to that. There was a very good radio play by Sarah Wooley about the making of the film, broadcast in 2017 and still available: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0…

@PParkerWriting I talked about it years ago on @BBCRadio4’s late-lamented Back Row. Starts 19 mins in. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…

@savior_cinco No, not as far as I know from a book. It is a snapshot that was on display at John Swarbrooke's Denton Welch exhibition in London last year.

@PParkerWriting Thought I had seen all the photos in circulation of Denton Welch. If this is from a book, could you say which one?

“I had come with such pain and labour to a place where emptiness had arrived before me. I was too late, something black and hollow had overtaken me and wriggled through the door.” Denton Welch, born 29 March 1915 #dentonwelch

@DemocritusSr That IS interesting. Like all his books, worth reading, but something about the religious theme in this one seemed rather overwhelming and off-putting.

@PParkerWriting Coincidences😉 I have not read “The End of the Affair”; I started it a few weeks ago, but quickly decided it was not what I wanted to read at the time (it looks different from others I have read of his), though I will want to come back to it as he seems to talk of his writing.

“There are images that stay vividly in your mind, even after many years: images coupled with the feeling that at the same time came to you. Sometimes you can know that such an image has been selected to stay with you forever...” Paul Scott, born 25 March 1920

@Owie39Rob Yes, that's absolutely right. His proudest moment.

@PParkerWriting I believed that when Enoch corrected some minor translation by Houseman & he accepted and acknowledged it...Enoch thought this one of the greatest acholades he had received coming as it did from AEH

“With the great gale we journey That breathes from gardens thinned, Borne in the drift of blossoms Whose petals throng the wind; Buoyed on the heaven-ward whisper Of dancing leaflets whirled From all the woods that autumn Bereaves in all the world.” A.E.Housman, b. 26 March 1859

@ncolloff @AlexBibliophile That's fascinating about Tim PS, a great and much missed actor - though as you say his brilliant Merrick not exactly encouraging for a young gay man!

@PParkerWriting @AlexBibliophile I vividly remember the series - I think Merrick was the first gay character I had seen (not a role model 😂) and Tim PS was an old boy of my school and his mother our drama productions’ make up artist!

Paul Scott is, I think, an under-appreciated writer.

“I don't wear brown and grey suits all the time, do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera, often. I want my feet to be bare, I want my face to be shaven, and my heart— you can't plan on the heart, but the better part of it, my poetry, is open.” Frank O’Hara born 27 March 1926

@DemocritusSr Greene at his best is very good - though I have to say I don't much like 'The End of the Affair'. The relatively unregarded 'England made Me' is a favourite, and was made into an excellent film starring Michael York, whose birthday it happens to be today.

@PParkerWriting Thanks for your reply. I find Greene such an interesting writer, and apparently rather overlooked and underrated lately. One wonders why: I suspect (like Waugh) because of his Catholicism. He is quite subtle (one might say he "speaks softly and carries a big stick").

@Owie39Rob Yes, Powell was like Housman a brilliant Classicist and reverend AEH. My publisher cut a section on the relationship from my book 'Housman Country'...

@PParkerWriting A Shropshire lad. Such beautiful & accessible poetry. Enoch Powell admired tis man

@icod I'm so sorry. It makes one feel awful...

@PParkerWriting Your thing led to my hacking too!

My X account was hacked twice. Now I have regained control and warn everyone not to click on any links in messages like the one below. Huge apologies for all this. Please make sure you have your 2-factor authentication turned on to avoid my fate.