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Masterpieces: A Decade of Masterpiece Theatre
hardback, dust cover has discoloration and small rips, excellent binding and clean inside pages, slight musty smell
- GenresTvNonfiction
236 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
9 people want to read
About the author
Alistair Cooke
106 books40 followersBooks of British-American journalist and broadcaster Alfred Alistair Cooke include
Around the World in 50 Years
(1966) and
Alistair Cooke's America
(1973).
After the University of Cambridge graduated him, the British Broadcasting Corporation hired him. This legendary television host rose to prominence for his reports on London Letter on radio of National Broadcasting Corporation during the 1930s. Cooke immigrated to the United States in 1937. In 1946, he began his radio appearances on Letter from America on the British Broadcasting Corporation; this tradition that lasted nearly six decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistai...
After the University of Cambridge graduated him, the British Broadcasting Corporation hired him. This legendary television host rose to prominence for his reports on London Letter on radio of National Broadcasting Corporation during the 1930s. Cooke immigrated to the United States in 1937. In 1946, he began his radio appearances on Letter from America on the British Broadcasting Corporation; this tradition that lasted nearly six decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistai...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 29, 2011
The theme for this review is, it is very hard to get rid of books.
So, I was cleaning out under my bed and found a box, and in the box were a few books (members of Goodreads should understand how books turn up everywhere). One of them was "Masterpieces" by Alistair Cooke, a present from my father in 1983. Clearly, this was not a book I needed any longer and I walked all the way to the trash/ recycling room determined to dispose of it -- why would I want to read about Masterpiece Theatre productions from the 1970s?
In the trash room, I flipped the book open for a moment and found that the first chapter was about "I, Claudius," which I remember very fondly. Cooke did not, in fact, discuss the making of the series itself in any detail; instead, he wrote about Robert Graves (who wrote the novel) and ancient Rome. After a few minutes I realized I was still standing next to a trash can, so I carried the book back into my apartment to finish reading about Claudius and maybe look at a couple other entries.
Cooke has a few pages on each of thirty or so MT productions, discussing the history behind the story being dramatized. He discusses Gustave Flaubert, Benjamin Disraeli, Lillie Langtree, Somerset Maugham -- quick sketches of the people and the times in clear, accessible prose. I am a fan of historical trivia, so this worked well for me. Did you know that Royce, of Rolls-Royce fame, was a self-taught engineer whose family could not afford to send him to school, so he became a rigorous experimenter as he did not have the math background to learn theoretically? And that one reason that Edward VIII had to abdicate to marry Wallis Simpson was that, earlier that same decade, it was agreed that matters relating to the royal succession had to be approved by colonial parliaments as well as the UK's? Canada, South Africa and Australia were all very conservative and would not consider a queen who had been twice divorced.
So the book is back in my house and I suppose I'm keeping it. Another book from that box that escaped the grim reaper is a big hardback history of Connecticut from the 1700s to the present. I really really don't need to read this. But don't be surprised if I end up reviewing it anyway.
So, I was cleaning out under my bed and found a box, and in the box were a few books (members of Goodreads should understand how books turn up everywhere). One of them was "Masterpieces" by Alistair Cooke, a present from my father in 1983. Clearly, this was not a book I needed any longer and I walked all the way to the trash/ recycling room determined to dispose of it -- why would I want to read about Masterpiece Theatre productions from the 1970s?
In the trash room, I flipped the book open for a moment and found that the first chapter was about "I, Claudius," which I remember very fondly. Cooke did not, in fact, discuss the making of the series itself in any detail; instead, he wrote about Robert Graves (who wrote the novel) and ancient Rome. After a few minutes I realized I was still standing next to a trash can, so I carried the book back into my apartment to finish reading about Claudius and maybe look at a couple other entries.
Cooke has a few pages on each of thirty or so MT productions, discussing the history behind the story being dramatized. He discusses Gustave Flaubert, Benjamin Disraeli, Lillie Langtree, Somerset Maugham -- quick sketches of the people and the times in clear, accessible prose. I am a fan of historical trivia, so this worked well for me. Did you know that Royce, of Rolls-Royce fame, was a self-taught engineer whose family could not afford to send him to school, so he became a rigorous experimenter as he did not have the math background to learn theoretically? And that one reason that Edward VIII had to abdicate to marry Wallis Simpson was that, earlier that same decade, it was agreed that matters relating to the royal succession had to be approved by colonial parliaments as well as the UK's? Canada, South Africa and Australia were all very conservative and would not consider a queen who had been twice divorced.
So the book is back in my house and I suppose I'm keeping it. Another book from that box that escaped the grim reaper is a big hardback history of Connecticut from the 1700s to the present. I really really don't need to read this. But don't be surprised if I end up reviewing it anyway.
Displaying 1 of 1 review