Traveller's Tale: The Making Of A Fairground Showman - Couverture rigide

Slattery-Christy, David

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1838136517 ISBN 13 : 9781838136512

Editeur : Christyplays Publications, 2020

Synopsis

Walter Edward Reginald Pratley, known to his family as Reg, was a Berkshire farm boy with a dream. He wanted to escape the everyday and experience adventure. Hearing stories of his families lost heritage as travellers from his grandmother Lucy Clemstone Pratley awoke his dream. When the fairground came to his village of Appleton near Oxford he befriended them and decided that the fair would never leave him behind again when they packed up and left.

Fate, the Royal Navy, love and the Great War all stood in his way but he survived against the odds and managed to make his dream come true. During the 1920s and 1930s he became a respected Master Showman travelling for the famous William (Billy) Nichols and his fairground empire. His Gallopers were his pride and joy and he named the carved wooden horses after his children. His travelling circuit included London's Forest Gate and annual fairgrounds at Reading, Newbury, Swindon, Abingdon, Banbury, Stratford Upon Avon to name a few and of course Oxford's famous St Giles Fair.

A few months prior to WW2 tragedy struck him and his family. Nothing was ever the same again. This is his story and a story of that time when the fairground reigned supreme for leisure and excitement and was eagerly awaited each year by thousands in towns and villages across the country.

My grandfather's story is truly remarkable and is now preserved as part of fairground and social history from the early 20th Century.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

David was born in Oxford, England, in 1959. He graduated from London's City University with a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Journalism. In addition he has a teaching PGCE from Lancaster University and an M.A. Arts (Dist) in Scriptwriting from the University of Central Lancashire. He continues his professional development by undertaking Post Graduate research and history courses at the University of Oxford. He has written several plays, including critically acclaimed Naturally Insane! The Life of Dan Leno, about the famous Victorian music hall comedian, presented at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End and on national tour. He has also written theatre history books and novels, screenplays, and works as a theatre producer, director and consultant. He was the Ivor Novello Consultant on the Oscar and BAFTA winning film Gosford Park, Directed by Robert Altman, and the script advisor and guest for the week for BBC Radio 3 special Composer of the Week programmes dedicated to Ivor Novello, for the firs time, with presenter Donald McCloud.

"At the heart of his career is a twin devotion: to reviving forgotten voices and bridging the worlds of stage and scholarship. Slattery-Christy has cultivated a reputation as a careful researcher, an intuitive dramatist, and a steward of cultural memory. His work finds purchase where actor and archivist meet ― where the ghosts of Edwardian stages and wartime letters might be reimagined for contemporary audiences. Whether through lyric biography or theatrical invention, he continues to explore the resonances of past lives in our own time."

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Christyplays Publications
• Date d'édition: 2020
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1838136517
• ISBN 13: 9781838136512
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 254
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Buchpark GmbH; https://www.buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Allemagne