Hugh Massingberd
This Green Plot
The Park: The Story of the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park
By David Conville
Oberon Books 144pp £15 order from our bookshop
At a low ebb last summer between chemotherapy sessions, I was dozing underneath a mulberry tree in Regent’s Park when, as if in a dream, I heard the magical sound of a fruity voice warbling ‘It’s Never Too Late to Fall in Love’, with orchestral accompaniment, wafting towards my deck-chair. On investigation through the undergrowth, I discovered that the voice belonged to Ian Talbot, artistic director of the New Shakespeare Company (which runs the Open Air Theatre), rehearsing the role of Lord Brockhurst for his own production of Sandy Wilson’s musical comedy The Boy Friend.
Happily it was not too late for me to fall in love all over again with ‘The Park’ (as the Open Air Theatre is always known) and regular visits to this delightful show, performed with an exuberant innocence that eschewed tongue-in-cheek campery, proved more efficacious a tonic than any cancer
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma