Sir Henry at Rawlinson End

Ever feel the need to reboot your creative muse?

Remind yourself why you love words and story-telling? :)


I know I do and one of my methods is to listen to (rather than read) something that's rich in language, style and verve. There's the classics, of course, like Gaskell's North and South and Georgette Heyer audiobooks have been favourites of mine for years.  The new-ish (although abridged) versions of The Convenient Marriage, Venetia and Sylvester  read by the delectable and chocolate-voiced Richard Armitage are fabulous and at the top of my play list ;0)

But occasionally I crave something different and then I return to a monologue comedy called Sir Henry at Rawlinson End by writer and musician Vivian Stanshall.  I've listened to this innumerable times over the years and never, ever get tired of it. 

So, what exactly is it? 

 

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End originated in Stanshall's performances and recordings for the John Peel show on BBC Radio One in the mid-1970s.  Contributing to Peel's programmes over several years, Stanshall played many new and old songs and Peel would later broadcast recordings made especially by Stanshall as parts of a sporadic "Rawlinson End" saga.

Viv Stanshall compiled and edited several for release, all of which related to Sir Henry Rawlinson and his country seat, Rawlinson End.   Sir Henry at Rawlinson End came out 1978 and it contains possibly the most entertaining 50 minutes you will ever enjoy.  For me and many others, it's a masterpiece, a work of undeniable genius from a man who was, on his day, one of the funniest men in Britain, a brilliant wordsmith and a true British eccentric.

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End  features Stanshall talking and singing as multiple characters.  The scene is the faded grandeur of an aristocratic manor - Rawlinson End - where the terrifying Sir Henry and a cast of larger than life characters go about their daily excursions.

Stanshall's characters include Sir Henry Rawlinson, his wife Lady Florrie Rawlinson (née Maynard), their children Ralph (`Raif') and Candice Rawlinson, and Henry's brothers Hubert (the younger brother) and Humbert (late older brother, deceased, and now a ghost). Additional characters include the staff of Rawlinson End: Mr. Cumberpatch (former gardener), Old Scrotum the Wrinkled Retainer (butler) and Mrs. E (housekeeper); various relatives: Florrie's brother Lord Tarquin Portly of Staines and his wife Lady Phillipa of Staines. Other characters include the landlord of the local pub Seth One-Tooth, Reg Smeeton, a walking encyclopedia; and "contract house cleaners" and "resting theatrical artistes," Teddy Tidy and Nigel Nice.

It's irreverent, surreal and complete nonsense, at times non-PC, filled with puns, double-entendres and above all astonishingly clever wordplay.  Viv Stanshall's use of language is extraordinary.  He moves from the bawdily asinine and wacky to the sublime in a single sentence.  The piece is crammed with wonderful one-liners and all narrated in Viv Stanshall's plummy and hugely expressive voice.  His exquisitely sharp, savage and witty descriptions display English usage that is almost Shakespearean.  They paint some of the most vivid and laugh-out-loud funny scenes I've ever listened to. The richness of the descriptions and narrative brings me back time and again, finding new nuances and meanings.

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End can be quite hard to listen to the first time - it's style, like Spike Milligan and Monty Python, takes some getting used to - but stick with it and you'll be rewarded with some of the most unique, rhythmic and evocative prose that ever graced a CD (or download :D ) It will have you reaching for your dictionary (corroboree...quisling...opsimath) and marvelling at Viv Stanshall's genius. 

Viv Stanshall died in a fire at his Muswell Hill home during the early hours of March 6th, 1995.

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End is arguably the finest hour of this Great British eccentric who was an accomplished singer-songwriter, musician, poet, wit and author and who you might have already unknowingly encountered as the Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield's famous album, Tubular Bells.

Next time you need to simply wallow in the joys of the English language, why not try something completely different and listen to, and marvel at, the incomparable piece of nonsense and exquisite prose of Sir Henry at Rawlinson End?!   There's a very short excerpt of the opening here to give you a flavour :)







 

Guest author - Hazel Osmond

A very warm welcome to my blog for guest author Hazel Osmond, who writes contemporary romantic comedy.  Hazel's fabulous debut novel - Who's Afraid of Mr. Wolfe? - is available now from Amazon and many other outlets and she's currently working on her second book, The Genuine Article.

Here Hazel gives her view on that most elusive and inexplicable entity, a writer's 'voice'....


You write funny….

Many thanks to Elizabeth for giving me the opportunity to write this piece – it’s been brewing away in my brain for a while and concerns what I feel is one of the mysteries of writing: where does the writer get her voice?

It’s a question that intrigues me because up until five years ago, I wasn’t listening to what now appears to be my writing voice, but trying to summon one up based on what I believed I should be writing. I put it down to ‘doing’ an English degree and to equating ‘being serious’ with ‘being taken seriously’.

It will not surprise you to learn that the pressure to write something weighty and profound resulted in a blank mind and a computer screen to match. Soon the only writing I was doing was advertising copywriting– nothing wrong with that and I will always be grateful that advertising taught me the importance of being entertaining, brief and direct… but where was that book I was going to write?

It took Richard Armitage, the actor, and the discovery of fanfiction to wake me up and show me that my voice was romantic and funny, and to convince me that making people laugh is not a barrier to making them cry a few pages later.

If I hadn’t been wearing intellectual blinkers, I would have picked up on the clues earlier. I might have realised that there was a reason why I day-dreamed love stories from an early age and continue to do so even when, and I say this at the risk of the curse of smugness shrivelling my vitals, I have been happily settled with the same man for A. Long. Time.

And the humour thing? Well, did I go for The Famous Five when I was little? No, and sorry to those of you who love those stories, but I much preferred the Just William books …and later, when my sister let me read her copies of Monica Dickens’ One Pair of Hands and One Pair of Feet I remember feeling as if I’d stumbled on someone who was completely tuned into how I saw life. By the time I discovered Dorothy Parker you might have thought my reaction to her would have told me something.

For all my short-sightedness, I suppose that somewhere deep down I was learning an important message: Richmal Crompton and Monica Dickens and Dorothy Parker had an absolute right to be funny even if, between the three of them, they did not possess one willy.

Of course it wasn’t all about women… during my teens I also had the great good fortune to need a lot of dental work. This of itself may be a funny thing to say, but what did all those hours at the dentist’s mean? Access to piles of Punch and writers as wonderful as Alan Coren.

So there we have it, my voice was in there all along but I wasn’t letting it out. I’m not saying it’s a better, more insightful voice than a serious one, but it’s true to my take on life – that humour, used properly, is a great leveller, comforter and humaniser. To write a book without it, or even a short story, just feels like I’m wearing someone else’s shoes. And they pinch.



 

V for Venetia

I needed a catchy title for this blog post and a homage to V for Vendetta (great film!) fitted the bill perfectly. Or maybe I should have coined, in true V fashion, 'Voila! Voluptuous voice to vocalise Venetia!'

Enough of the alliteration for the moment, let's get down to the news - the fabulous news -that Richard Armitage, he with the voice like liquid chocolate, is to read Georgette Heyer's Venetia for Naxos audiobooks. Richard's reading of Sylvester for Naxos was a huge success and now he's to tackle Rake Damerel et al. *Happy sigh* I confess that when those of us on the C19 Georgette Heyer group were discussing which Heyer novel we would like Richard to read next, Venetia came top of the list. It seems Naxos thought the same :0) I love Venetia. It's Heyer's 'grown up romance' and even though there's not an explicit sex scene in sight, the passion fairly sizzles on the page. A pity this audiobook will be abridged but perhaps that's one reason Richard has managed to fit the reading into his busy filming schedule.

I’ve been a fan of Richard’s since 2004 when he appeared as John Thornton in the BBC production of North and South. Since then his career has gone from strength to strength. He’s appeared in the Vicar of Dibley, Robin Hood and Spooks, among other things. Richard's voice talents are as astonishing as his on screen acting abilities, though, and now he's winning new fans for his delightful reading of Georgette Heyer.

Venetia by Georgette Heyer and read by Richard Armitage is available April 2010 and can be pre ordered on Amazon UK, Amazon.com and The Book Depository. If you follow the links on RichardArmitageOnLine you will also be making a contribution to one of Richard's chosen charities.




I predict the verdict from the vox populi vis-a-vis this velvet voiced version of Venetia will be that it is a veritable gem ...

Swooning over Sylvester

Back in March, I blogged on Forromancereaders about a new Naxos CD audiobook of one of my favourite Georgette Heyer novels, Sylvester, read by the talented, chocolate-voiced Richard Armitage. I received my copy a few weeks ago and am delighted to say it's everything I hoped it would be. Richard did a wonderful job with a novel that has so many female characters. His differentiation was fabulous, and his storytelling abilities and voice talents meshed beautifully with Heyer's light, witty style. I've listened to it three times now and it just gets better on each occasion. His voice draws you in - it's mesmerising.

Judging by this article, Naxos are delighted too. I hope they can borrow his 'delicious' voice again very soon ;0)

The Sylvester audio CD is currently riding high in the Amazon UK charts. As I type this, it stands at number 1 in two categories (Audio CDs Literary Classics and Books Classic and Contemporary authors), and number 5 in Historical Romance overall! Great news for everyone involved.