Hugh Leonard

Hugh Leonard was an Irish writer, journalist and playwright, who was born in Dalkey, near Dublin in 1926. His mother was unmarried and had put him up for adoption. His birth name was John Joseph Byrne, and he was known as Jack... but he was adopted by a working class couple, Nicholas and Margaret Keyes and took their name. Then when he started writing plays, he used the name Hugh Leonard. His adoptive parents were simple people, who had not been able to have children... and their marriage was often stormy. His father was a gardener. Jack was a bright young boy and won a scholarship to a better school, the Presentation College, in Glasthule. He did not do that well academically there, and realized that he was not likely to get into one of the professions.  He left school and went to work in the Irish Civil Service. He and his friends escaped from the narrowness of life in 1940s and 1950’s Ireland, by attending the cinema a lot. On joining the Civil Service, he realized that he had walked into a trap, in that it was dull, with few prospects, and feared that he would be stuck there “until he got the pension”. His adoptive parents were pleased at his getting into a middle class job, and having financial security.  However Jack began to get involved in community theatre, acting in plays and writing them. He realized that writing could become his escape from life in the lower middle class. In his short volumes of autobiography, he gives an amusing picture of the Dublin theatre scene, of acting in drama groups... And of butting heads with the members of the Catholic clergy, who were often involved with local amateur dramatics, because it was a safe social activity for their parishioners, but who were fierce on the subject of “immorality”. Jack disliked Irish nationalism, and was an agnostic. He gives an account of a meeting with the flamboyant and gay actor Michael Mac Liammoir..He married Paule, a Belgian lady, and they had one child, Danielle. Then after 14 years in the Civil Service, he had had a few plays produced and got an offer from a TV company based in Manchester. He left the job and moved to England. He became a full time professional writer, and was one of the first Irish writers to concentrate on TV work, adapting classic novels, writing comedies and thrillers etc. In 1970 he and his family re located to Dublin and he also began to write a humorous column for the newspapers. One of his best works was adapting James Plunkett’s novel about the 1913 Lock Out, as a TV serial. It was a big success and started the career of Bryan Murray; who later played “Flurry Knox” in the “Irish RM” and Peter O’Toole played James Larkin. Leonard's best known play “Da” about his adoptive father, was made into a film In the 1980's. I’ve always loved the Hugh Leonard column, with its wit and pointed digs at his various betes noir. He disliked the Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne and the politician Charles J Haughey.  He was deeply hostile to the IRA. His autobiographical writings are short and I wish he had written some more. His plays and writing brought him a handsome income, but he lost a good deal in the 1980s when he, together with Gay Byrne was “ripped off” by his accountant Russell Murphy, who embezzled massive amounts of money from his clients. In 2000, his wife Paule died of an asthma attack. He was devastated but continued to write and work. A few years later, he married a younger American woman but the marriage wasn’t a success. He died in 2008,at the age of 82.

Beds and Blue Jeans

Beds and Blue Jeans is set in present day America.  It is a sweet realistic romance about 2 people who grow into a relationship, after they've had a baby, and how they make things work

http://www.amazon.com/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443265304&sr=8-2&keywords=nadine+sutton

Remington Showed us how he looked on Canvas

Frederic Remington, mentioned in "the Last Cowboy Song"  is one of the most famous of American artists.  His paintings and drawings are set in the West... He went there in the 1880s, when the “West was being won”. The buffalo were being slaughtered to help clear the land of American Indians.  Railroads were being built.  There were ranch wars, wars between the large cattle ranchers and the small farmers who were moving out west and breaking up the prairie and raising crops.

Born in New York in 1861, Frederic was a poor student.  He went out west and tried his hand at ranching but found it hard work and realised that it would not make his fortune.  He had spent some time studying art at Yale, but had no real career plans.  He dabbled in business, trying to run a hardware store and then a saloon.  But when he married, he had to try and find a way to earn a living.

He illustrated a book by Theodore Roosevelt who had also worked out West and taken to the adventurous life… Remington’s artistic skills developed just as the American public began to get interested in the West – in its mythology and brief history.  Easterners were beginning to read novels and stories about the Frontier, even if they never went there, and enjoyed his paintings and drawings.

The army was mopping up the last bit of Indian resistance, and Remington went to paint some of the officers. He did not see Indians as “noble”; they were in the way of white expansion. He also went to paint for William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper during the Spanish American war... And was shaken by what he saw of military action and jungle fighting.

 His style of painting was naturalistic and he painted people, cowboys, Indians, soldiers, hunters etc., rather than focussing on the wild landscapes of the West... 

He died in 1909, due to peritonitis, after appendix surgery

Band story, Rough Music

A “band” story set in the US, in the late 1970s.  It’s about a country rock band and its 2 lead singers and how they cope with life on the road.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Glen Campbell Died August 2017 aged 81.

Glen died the other day, after a long fight with his Alzheimer’s.  He tried with heroic courage to keep on working as long as he could, even when he was forgetting lyrics.  He went on a farewell tour, to give his fans a chance to see him, and to keep active until the illness claimed him.

He spent several years in an assisted living facility, being cared for, as he was too ill to live at home.   He leaves a wonderful legacy of films, great singing, brilliant instrumental work…

Goodnight Rhinestone Cowboy