Terence
Frisby will speak at the Sentinel Literature Festival 2010 on his
book Kisses on a Postcard published by Bloomsbury. Terence is
best known as an actor and playwright. His most famous play and film
is There’s A Girl In My Soup, London’s longest-running comedy
and a worldwide smash hit.
Kisses on a Postcard, about his childhood as an evacuee in
WWII, published in hardback last autumn, is an account of that war,
and of the community where he lived, seen through the eyes of a
displaced boy, as the world destroys itself round him. It is, above
all, a tribute to the extraordinary couple who gave him and his
brother a rich childhood while suffering their own tragedy. It
includes examinations of pacifist views propounded in the middle of
a war being fought for our survival; it questions the role of
authority and God and subverts the sexual morality of the day. All
these basic ideas are put before us and the boy, growing up in a
remote hamlet in Cornwall. It is proving to be loved by readers
everywhere.
The book seems to be developing a life of its own which has
surprised even the author and publisher. Since the launch of the
hardback there have been three reprints. The Daily Telegraph gave it
an enthusiastic review on publication. Then, out of the blue,
Internet book sites and bloggers took it to their hearts and have
given it unanimous five-star reviews. It was top of Lovereading’s
Christmas list and is Random Jotting’s Book of the Year. The
paperback, on sale from the end of May, will coincide with the
seventieth anniversary of Dunkirk.
Terence, an excellent performer, has spoken at many book and
theatrical events with previous plays and publications. You can
access all interviews, reviews and much other information via the
website
www.kissesonapostcard.com Just follow ‘the Book’.
This story has got a life in three mediums. It started as a Radio 4
play, winning the Giles Cooper award and was repeated no less than
ten times by the BBC. The Drama Dept described it as ‘The most
popular play for a generation.’
Following that it was successfully tried out as a stage musical at
the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple. BBC Radio Devon said quite simply
that it was ‘the best production I have ever seen at the Queen’s
Theatre.’ It is currently being set up for the West End.
All of which demonstrates that Terence has plenty to talk about that
will interest booklovers. Audiences have already been riveted to
learn of the creative process from play, to musical, to book.
Terence
Frisby’s most famous play, There’s A Girl In My Soup, was London’s
longest-running comedy (six and a half years)1966-1972 and a
worldwide smash hit with long runs on Broadway, in Paris, Berlin,
Stockholm, Sydney, Rome, Vienna, Prague and many other places. It is
still constantly produced across the globe.
His script for the equally successful film, which starred Peter
Sellers and Goldie Hawn, won the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain
Award in 1970 for the Best British Comedy Screenplay.
His other stage plays include The Subtopians (Arts Theatre 1964),
The Bandwagon (Mermaid 1969), It’s All Right If I Do It (Mermaid
1977), Seaside Postcard (Young Vic 1978) Rough Justice (Apollo 1994)
Funny About Love (two UK national tours 1999-2000). All his plays
are published by Samuel French and are regularly performed
worldwide.
He has also written many plays for television, two of which were
nominated for awards. His comedy series include Lucky Feller with
David Jason (1976) and That’s Love (1988-92), which won the Gold
Award for Comedy at the 1991 Houston International Film Festival.
His radio play, Just Remember Two Things: It’s Not Fair And Don’t Be
Late for BBC Radio Four, on which Kisses On A Postcard is based, won
The Giles Cooper Play Of The Year Award and achieved some sort of
record by being broadcast ten times in a few months on Radio 4 and
BBC World Service. A musical stage version of his radio play was
produced at the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple in 2004.
Terence has worked extensively for nearly 50 years as actor,
director and producer. He has played leads and directed in the West
End and all over the country.
His favourite presentations were the South African,
multi-award-winning Woza Albert at the Criterion Theatre in 1983,
subsequently off-Broadway and worldwide, and the record-breaking UK
Tours of Once A Catholic and The Real Inspector Hound, which
double-billed with his own one-act play, Seaside Postcard.
His first book was Outrageous Fortune, an autobiographical story.
Terence is currently writing a novel and Diary Of A Grandfather.
Come to Sentinel Literature Festival on October 30th 2010 to hear
Terence talk about Kisses on a Postcard.