The Write to Know, Issue 11
Reviews, recommendations, randoms and reads
I was sad to hear that Richard Sherman, one half of the legendary songwriting duo, the Sherman Brothers, had passed away.
His death truly signals the end of an era; one that is wrapped up in innocent flights of fantasy, sunny days and ice cream eaten on the beach.
I call them ‘time-travel songs’ because they immediately transport you to another place. For me, that’s thumbing through my Disney record collection in my childhood bedroom, listening to the scratches of the needle on the vinyl and the hiss of the tinny speakers, along with the songs themselves.
The brothers wrote The Ugly Bug Ball, which is still one of my all-time favourites and is now only ever heard on Radio 2’s Junior Choice Christmas programme.
The Ugly Bug Ball predates me by some years (just so you know) but it was written for the 1963 film Summer Magic, staring Hayley Mills and Burl Ives (who sings the song), and tells the story of a Boston widow and her children who move to a small town in Maine.
Apparently, Disney didn’t much care for it but the Sherman brothers convinced him by explaining that, to bugs, other bugs are not ugly, and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Disney saw the logic and the song became one of the year's biggest hits.
Ok, so that’s a famous song but nowhere near their most famous as they also wrote the music for Mary Poppins, A Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Winne The Pooh and Bedknobs & Broomsticks.
The most enduring are probably A Spoonful of Sugar, Feed the Birds (Walt loved this the best apparently), Let’s Go Fly a Kite, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and Chim Chim Cher-ee, which won Oscars for Best Music Score and Best Original Song. The many others are listed here.
Richard was 95 and outlived his older brother Robert by 12 years. The pair, geniuses to the core, had a famously fractious relationship. If you haven’t seen it watch the documentary The Boys, The Sherman Brothers’s Story, which is currently streaming on Disney +.
Via the army and the songwriting epicentre that was Tin Pan Alley, they climbed to the pinnacle of their profession but it wasn’t smooth sailing and there were many years when they didn’t speak to each other.
Yet still, they managed to take you on musical journeys that were incredibly wistful and sad in one moment, and hilarious and happy the next. Quite extraordinary.
Here’s Robert, in 2016, talking about Feed the Birds, and singing for a select audience that includes Dick Van Dyke.
ANI DREAM WILL DO
I said I’d revisit the Cannes Film Festival, so what news of the coveted Palme d’Or?
Well, it went to Anora, which is written and directed by Sean Baker, and tells the story of a sex worker who dates a Russian oligarch.
I haven’t seen it but director Greta Gerwig, who chaired the festival’s judging panel, has. She commended the film for its humanity, saying: “It captured our hearts and lets us laugh and then broke our hearts.”
Watching it in the cinema might prove to be tricky as the movie doesn’t have a confirmed release date. However, it does have a distribution deal in the States and will be streaming on HBO some time in November.
I’ve got a feeling that like the little gem that is There’s Still Tomorrow, Anora really needs to be seen on a screen bigger than my telly. In fact, director Sean said something like that in his acceptance speech so let’s hope he gets his way.
Here’s a Vanity Fair interview with the movie’s leading lady, Mikey Madison, who plays Ani.
BREAK IT DOWN
Want to write your own Palme d’Or winning movie?
Then why not take part in this year’s Big Break screenwriting competition, which is run by Final Draft, the screen-writing software people.
I think this is one of the more legit contests out there. It has a good name and is designed to help aspiring writers launch their careers.
You can find out more here but their next deadline is June 10, and if you want to submit after that you have to pay more money (but you do get until June 28).
The grand prize is $10,000, plus meetings with industry execs, a new iPad, laptop and an all-expenses paid trip to Hollywood, which is worth it alone to pick up a mouth-watering pork belly banh mi sandwich from Mendocino Farms, on Fairfax (but that’s just me).
Foodie sidenote. You used to be able to get a great pork belly sarnie at Forage, in Silverlake, but when I popped in a couple of years ago they’d taken it off the menu. The swines! (Arf).
LONG READ KLAXON!
Have I got a long read for you.
I literally squealed with delight (“Enough with the pig puns” - Ed), when writer Jeff Maysh announced the publication of a new story.
Jeff is the master of the long read and I have made him promise me that when he finishes his new book (you can’t get any longer than that), he will do a Ten for The TEN interview.
Anyway, his latest, about three women who brought down the Medellín cartel, was published in the Financial Times last week. You can read it here.
Enjoy!
HARRY UP!
One for journalists. The Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowship is now open for applications until July 15.
According to their website, the fellowship “provides an unrivalled opportunity for an exceptional early career journalist: a nine-month fellowship with Durham University and Reuters to undertake an investigative project. The Fellow will be mentored by top Reuters editors while having access to Durham’s academics and research resources and will be given the opportunity to develop rigorous, fact-based research and reporting skills”.
You can apply from anywhere in the world and it even comes with a monthly salary.
So if you’ve got a big story and need the resources to dig deep, this could be for you.
“ANNE TYLER IS MY QUEEN”
Peter Berry, who I interviewed for last week’s Ten for The TEN, had some wonderful book and author recommendations.
This is what he said when I asked him for his favourites:
“Oh my. Mostly women. Anne Tyler is my queen. Marian Keyes, Deborah Levy, Bernardine Evaristo. I LOVED Jennie Godfrey's book, The List of Suspicious Things. And I'm currently reading Iris Murdoch.
“On the other side of the gender fence, William Boyd, Iain Banks (and M Banks), Charlie Dickens, Haruki Murakami. And Amor Towles is great. The Paramount series of his A Gentleman In Moscow book is just fabulous. I also read tons of non-fiction so if I could also please wave a flag for Ghost Signs, by Stu Hennigan, on Blue Moose Books, the most extraordinary thing I've read in the last 10 years. All politicians and councillors should be forced to read it at gunpoint if necessary.
Another question that was cut from last week’s chat but that made me laugh, so I have to share, is this:
If we were to get a POV shot of you looking at your keyboard, what would we see on your desk?
“There's that Einstein quote - if a messy desk implies a messy mind then what does an empty desk signify? My desk (actually the kitchen table) is a shit show. Until we have guests when it all gets tidied away. There are note books and all sorts. There's a winning Lottery ticket for £2. I keep having to refer to the Book 1 notes to ensure that Book 2 makes any sense.”
I love the fact there’s a winning lottery ticket just sitting there. Go get the money, Peter!
Right now, sitting at my own desk, I’m staring at a stack of receipts, five notebooks, three biros, one fountain pen and a mouse mat that says, ‘Keep Calm and Love Leigh-on-Sea’. I’m not even sure where it came from but it’s so twee and ridiculous I can’t bear to get rid of it.
AND FINALLY…
Five wise words about writing.
“Start before you are ready.”
- Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance.
Loved the Accidental Tourist original cover. That chair w/ wings, too too cute.