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Weekend Links

 Happy post-Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!  I hope you had a lovely day, with lots of pie.  (my holiday was quiet, since my mother just got out of hospital, but we had a yummy lunch and watched the parade and "Doc Martin" marathon on PBS...)  Now back to writing! (hopefully!  The fourth of my Santa Fe 1920s mysteries was turned in, now I'm contemplating my next project and starting to pack for a move)

In the meantime, here's a bit of distraction reading for you...

The return of the Strathmore Rose tiara

You can buy costumes and props from "The Crown"!!! (I'd love the coronation robes for washing dishes and walking the dogs)

"Wolf Hall" will return for part 3

And a Tudor gatehouse is for sale

A.S. Byatt passed away ("Possession" is one of my favorite books of all time)

The oldest bookshops in London

400 years of Shakespeare's First Folio

Heroine of the (slightly-post) Weekend: Queen Alexandra

 Sorry I'm late!!!  This week's Heroine is Queen Alexandra, who died on November 20, 1925...

Born December 1, 1844 in Copenhagen, she had a surprisingly humble start in life!  One of 6 children to Prince Christian of Schelswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel, she was of a cadet branch of the Danish royal family.  With only a small income, the family lived a small-scale but very happy family life at their Yellow Palace grace-and-favor home.  The girls made their own clothes, and Alix shared a room with her sister Dagmar (future Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia).  They were very close, and loved games and family dinners, which showed in her future desire to build just such a close family for herself.

In 1861, after a "scandal" involving a music-hall actress, Prince Albert Edward turned 20 and his parents decided it was high time he got married and settled down.  With the help of eldest daughter Princess Vicky, Crown Princess of Prussia, Victoria scoured the Almanach Gotha for suitable German princess, but they all had one problem--they were not pretty.  And "pretty" was the number one requirement for the prince.  The undisputed loveliest princess of them all was Alix of Denmark, "the only one to be chosen".  Victoria reluctantly agreed, and the young couple "accidentally" met while touring the cathedral at Speyer on September 24, 1862.  

In March 1863, Alix traveled to England with her family, and was married on March 10 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.  It was a controversial choice of venue--not close to London, small, not much room for a grand guest list, not many suitable places to stay (only her immediate family was there from Denmark, and Queen Victoria, widowed, watched and wept from a balcony).  At the end of 1864, her father became King of Denmark, and Prussia invaded the Danish territory of Holstein, instilling a lifelong hatred of Germany in Princess (now) Alexandra and creating a source of fiction between her and Queen Victoria.

Her first child, Prince Albert Victor, was born prematurely in early 1864, starting Alexandra on a devoted (not always happily) motherhood.  Eventually she would have 6 children--"Eddie" was joined by George, Louise, Victoria, Maud, and a boy who died soon after birth.  "She was in her glory when she could run up the nursery, put on a flannel apron, wash the children herself and see them asleep in their little beds."  But the birth of her third child in 1867 left her with rheumatic fever, resulting in a permanent limp and exacerbating her deafness.  It also meant she couldn't keep up with her husband's constant whirl of social life as much, and she started to retreat into her own world of family and dogs, her own friends and charity work, at their homes of Marlborough House in London and Sandringham House in the country.

Her marriage, though a success in many ways (Alexandra was a very popular princess and queen, and they worked well in partnership) was also marred by Edward's constant and blatant infidelities and Alexandra's hearing loss.  But her appeal for the public never waned, she was always considered beautiful and charming, and devoted to her charitable works, especially her interest in nursing and healthcare (Alexandra Rose Day is still an ongoing fundraiser).

in 1901, she finally became Queen!  She increased her charities, but otherwise continued as she had been, doting on her grandchildren.  In 1910, she traveled to Corfu (she often visited her family around the Continent, and her brother was now King of Greece; she had also purchased a holiday home in Denmark with her sister, where Empress Marie lived after the Russian Revolution), but was quickly summoned back to London when her husband collapsed.  After his death, she wrote "I feel as if I have been turned to stone, unable to cry, unable to grasp the meaning of it all."  She moved from Buckingham Palace back to Marlborough House.

She suffered from ill health for the last few years of her life, and died of a heart attack at Sandringham.  She was buried at St. George's, site of her "inconvenient" wedding, with her husband.

Sources:

Georgina Battiscombe, Queen Alexandra (1969)

David Duff, Alexandra, Princess and Queen (1980)

Richard Hough, Edward and Alexandra (1998)

Heroine of the Weekend: Vivien Leigh

 I used to maintain a list of historical women here I called "Heroine of the Weekend" (since I posted them on weekend).  I love discovering new-to-me extraordinary women in history and delving a bit into their lives and times, but life got in the way and I didn't have the time to continue for a while.  I'm eager to start this feature again, even sporadically, and see who we can discover.  Let me know if you have any ideas for future features!  And take a look at past essays in the side panel...

Today's heroine is one of my very favorite actresses, the complex, wonderfully beautiful, immensely talented Vivien Leigh, who was born November 5, 1913 and died July 8, 1967.  The winner of 2 Oscars (Gone With the Wind and Streetcar Names Desire) and a Tony for Tovarich, she had a 30 year career,  Despite her great film successes, she considered herself mainly a stage actress.   "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Being a film star—just a film star—is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvellous parts to play," she said.  She faced many challenges ub ger short life, roles she longed for and lost, a serious battled with bi-polar disorder abd TB (which led to her early death), as well as the collapse of her great love for Laurence Olivier.  Always, she was tough, hard-working, never giving up.

She was born in India, where she had her first stage role as Little Bo Peep at 3, and at age 6 was sent to Catholic school in England.  After her schooling, she was accepted at RADA, but dropped out soon after meeting and marrying conventional, older barrister Leigh Holman in 1932 and having her one child, Suzanne, 1in 1933.  She went back to study part-time, and managed to get a role in in the play The Mask of Virtue (1935).  She got good reviews and lots of notice (except grumblings that her voice was too small for the large space!)  Later Leigh said  "some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said for those first notices.^[29] I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well and have never forgiven him"

In 1935, she first met Olivier at the Savoy Grill, and despite their current marriages were instantly drawn to each other and embarked on a passionate affair..  She played Ophelia to his Hamlet at a famous production at Ellsionore, where the weather was stormy and Vivien was worse, having her first major breakdown.

Her first major movie Yank at Oxford (1938) and it gained her attention in America.  Soon after the pair embarked for the US, Oiliver to stare in Wuthering Heights, Vivie convinced she could bag THE part of Scarlett O'Hara.  She did, of course, and embarked on a long, grueling shooting schedule, with her favorite director replaced, illness, feuds with the likes of Leslie Howard.  Worst of all, she was separated from Olivier.  "Puss, my puss, how I hate film acting! Hate, hate, and never want to do another film again!"  she wrote to him in anguish.

After GWTW her career was never the same.  She became a phenomonon, garnering all acclaim, including the Oscar.  But it wasn't entirely what she wanted.   "I'm not a film star—I'm an actress. Being a film star—just a film star—is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity. Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvellous parts to play."

On May 31, 1940, finally free, the pair married , and headed off to mount a production of Romeo and Juliet in New York.  (after Vivien being disappointed in losing the role of Rebecca opposite Olivie).  The play was terrible flop and huge financial disaster for the could.  Their follow-up was luckier, a film version of That Hamilton Woman.    They returned to England on the eve of war, where Leigh performed for the troops in North Africa (where she probablu first contracted TB), and Olivier made his great, and very patriotiocally stirring Henry V.

Leigh sufferered miscarriages, and the mental troubles increased.  The couple went ton tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1948 (soon after Olivier gained knighthood, making Vivien Lady Olivier).  It went on for many gruelling months, and though a great success Vivien's health broke down further.  Olivier said he "lost Vivien in Australia"

Throughout the '40s and '50s there were many movies and stage prductions (including Ceaser and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra together).  "The reviews there were also mostly positive, but film critic Kenneth Tynan  angered them when he suggested that Leigh's was a mediocre talent that forced Olivier to compromise his own"

She performed Blanch in Streetcar... in the West End in 1949 (326 performances) which led to the film version and her second Oscar.  In 1953, her marriage rocky, she went to Ceylon to film Elephant Walk, where she threw herself into an affair with actor Peter Finch, and feel deeper into mental illness.  She was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor, and Olivier took Vivien home to the US for treatment.  Later, after partial recovery, there were more plays, especially Shaw and Shakespeare, as well as a few films, such as Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Ship of Fools.  After parting with Olivier (how went on to marry actress Joan Plowright) she entered a long, stable relationship with actor Jack Merivale, settling into life on a country estate with lots of cats.  She died at her London flat of TB on July 7, 1967

 When asked if she believed her beauty had been an impediment to being taken seriously as an actress, she said, "People think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can't possibly act, and as I only care about acting, I think beauty can be a great handicap, if you really want to look like the part you're playing, which isn't necessarily like you."

Director George Cukor described Leigh as a "consummate actress, hampered by beauty", and Laurence Olivier said that critics should "give her credit for being an actress and not go on forever letting their judgments be distorted by her great beauty." Garson Kanin shared their viewpoint and described Leigh as "a stunner whose ravishing beauty often tended to obscure her staggering achievements as an actress. Great beauties are infrequently great actresses—simply because they don't need to be. Vivien was different; ambitious, persevering, serious, often inspired"

Some sources:

Bean, Kendra. Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press

Coleman, Terry. Olivier, The Authorised Biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005

Edwards, Anne. Vivien Leigh, A Biography. London: Coronet Books, 1978 edition

Spoto, Donald. Laurence Olivier: A Biography. London: Cooper Square Press, 2001

Strachan, Alan. Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2018.

Vickers, Hugo. Vivien Leigh: A Biography. London: Little, Brown and Company, 1988 editionyg

Weekend Links

 

Happy middle of the month!  Thanksgiving is just week after next (and I need to start my pies--my holiday assignment), and Christmas looms ahead, along with my birthday and the stress of moving house.  (Fingers crossed, we will close on our new house Dec. 10!).  I also just turn in one book (the 4th 1920s Santa Fe mystery), and am starting on another (the second Matchmakers of Bath story).  Whew!!  This is always a wild time of year, but I think it will be doubly do this year.  Any time management advice??

In the meantime, a few fun things to read and distract ourselves:

9 signs you're a complex thinker whose mind works differently

The oldest bookstores in London

400 Years of Shakespear's Folio

Tiara of the Month: The Danish Ruby Wreath

Sofia Coppola's Stymied Attempt to Bring Undine Spragg to the Screen

Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius

Researcher uncovers possible new works from Louisa May Alcott

 Two very different tiaras at a state banquet

26 Christmas recipes from the 1920s

First look at Agatha Christie's "Murder is Easy"

Weekend Links

 Happy autumn, everyone!  Don't forget to turn your clocks back this weekend.  I confess I sometimes have a tough time with the early darkness and cold, but I do love cozy quilts, cashmere shawls, and holiday lights, so it's hygge time!  Also reading and writing time.  I have a deadline this week (book 4 of the 1920s Santa Fe mysteries), and finally got the top of my library's holds for Tom Lake.  What are you reading this week??

In the meantime, some fun tidbits...

First look at Agatha Christie's "Murder is Easy" cast

How Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group Unbuttoned Britain

Maria Tallchief quarter released

An early Charlotte Bronte story

The war of the opera houses in The Gilded Age

How you can protect your local library