I went to see THAT film the other night.
I had a completely different Blogpost prepped for today but jettisoned it for this. A friend asked me to go with him to see 'The Iron Lady' and reluctantly I did, resenting handing over my hard-earned cash, and feeling I had to explain myself to the box office staff, ticket collector, popcorn / nacho / junk food seller and the person flogging the fudge, from whom I bought a bagful, thinking I might have to use it to stop my mouth in case I felt roused to hurl abuse at the screen. I wasn't as vocal as one chap who'd been dragged along by his partner and declared that as he'd watched films about Hitler and Stalin he supposed he could suffer one about 'her'.
We were a very quiet audience. The only notable reaction came when MT started to quote St Francis outside No. 10 Downing Street. Then there was a hissing sound, similar, I imagine, to the sound reputed to have been heard in movie theatres when the scene of the Yankee victory in 'Gone with the Wind' was playing in the deep South. The noise around me wasn't so loud. There were no more than twenty folk in the cinema and most were of the vintage of the main character. But it did bring it back to me like a slap on the face.
It was weird to have lived through those distressing times and revisit incidents and issues I felt passionate about. Having some knowledge of how a script works it was interesting to see what was expunged, glossed over, highlighted, and embroidered for dramatic and sympathetic effect.
By strange, but I'm glad to say, happy coincidence Random House are just about to reissue my KEZZIE books as a bind up under the title KEZZIE AT WAR. The first book is based on a mining village not far from where I live and is set in the late 1930s. I wrote it in the aftermath of the modern miners' strikes. When working as a librarian I managed a library situated near one of our more recent big pit disasters. In the book Kezzie's father states that the price of coal is paid by the miners and their families in blood.
For submitting to the make-up alone Meryl Streep deserves her Golden Globe. For an accurate portrayal of a megalomaniac drifting into dementia, I'll leave you to be the judge.
KEZZIE AT WAR will be published in Spring 2012
Theresa Breslin's latest historical novel PRISONER OF THE INQUISITION has won the Young Quill's Award and is shortlisted for the Scottish Children's Book Award. It was the favourite book of Carnegie Shadowing Groups.
DIVIDED CITY is being performed as musical theatre at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. 2nd - 4th Feb 2012
