British Author Challenge January 2025: Show Biz

^{The Old Vic}

January will be dedicated to books about show business. Any work dealing with performing arts will count: theatre, film, dance, music, radio, stage magic, etc.

Suggested works
Lost Empires by J.B. Priestley
An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
The Praise Singer by Mary Renault
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Wise Children by Angela Carter
Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans
Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
Ha'penny by Jo Walton
Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell
The Late Mr Shakespeare by Robert Nye
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

>1 amanda4242: I will be reading Priestley but not the one you featured. The Good Companions for me.

I read The Praise Singer by Mary Renault. This is a fictional story of Simonides, Greek poet of Ancient Greece.

>2 PaulCranswick: The library has that one so I may join you.

>3 Kristelh: I find Renault's style kind of demanding, but I do enjoy her books.

>2 PaulCranswick: That's great. It is probably his most enduring book.

I read The Bad Quarto by Jill Paton Walsh, a mystery involving a Cambridge student production of the "bad quarto" of Hamlet.

>1 amanda4242: Ive read lots of Maugham, and wonder why I missed Theater given my love of it; soon to be in my hands

I finished Theatre tonight and gave it 4 stars. Maugham certainly knows how to write characters and their very human natures!

>8 alcottacre: Glad you enjoyed Theatre! There's a pretty good film of it, Being Julia.

I'm throwing in the towel on Good Companions; the dialect is killing me.

>10 amanda4242: I am about to start it this weekend, all being well. Surprised it weighed you down so.

I have most of his books; discovered him when my bookgroup read him, and I just continued on. funny i missed this one. looking forward to it c oming soon

>9 amanda4242: theres also a movie of the painted veil. It changed the ending which aggrevated me but it was beautifully filmed they matched his visions pretty closely

>9 amanda4242: Good to know! Thanks, Amanda!

>11 PaulCranswick: I probably would have been okay with an audiobook, but I was reading every line of dialogue twice at a fraction of my usual speed and still getting only part of what was being said.

>13 cindydavid4: The 2006 version? I should probably get around to watching it one of these days since I'm in love with the score.

Well, I got in three for this month:

The Rat-Catcher's Daughter by KJ Charles

A short novella about a music hall singer, her love interest, and some rival gangs. It's nothing exceptional, but I liked the characters.

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

Medieval actors create a new play about a recent murder and stumble upon some shocking secrets. *Very* good.

Upstart Crow: The Scripts by Ben Elton

The scripts for the first two seasons of the TV series. Nothing here that wasn't on the screen, apart from some amusing footnotes. Enjoyable, but really only recommended if you can't watch the TV series.

I'll have the February thread up tomorrow.

I finished my second book for this month's challenge, Ha'Penny, last night. I am very much enjoying Walton's Small Change trilogy, which I had not read previously.

>17 alcottacre: I love that series and really should get around to a reread of it.

>16 amanda4242:. Oh, I had Morality Play on my possibilities this month. I didn't get to it yet. I will have to see if I can squeeze it in.

>18 amanda4242: I had owned it for years, Amanda, and when Ha'Penny showed up on the list of books for this month, I decided it was high time I read the trilogy. Two down, one more to go!

oh I have Maughams theatre to read and ran out of month. But its short so maybe i can squeeze it in the last few days

The February thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/368037

>21 cindydavid4: It goes pretty quickly, Cindy. Best of luck to you in finishing it up in the next few days.

>16 amanda4242: I loved Morality Play although it is 28 years since I read it.

I switched Priestleys and read Lost Empires instead.

>24 PaulCranswick: I really liked Lost Empires when I read it for the third BAC. Why did you switch your selection?

I finished Morality Play. So 2 books read for January’s topic.