The end of the Empress of Ireland

Todays quote from the diarists collection ‘The Assassin’s Cloak’ is a short but lovely entry from Alma Mahler-Werfel, from 1902.

“Bliss and Rapture.”

Last night, and the early hours of this morning I finished Christopher Robbins biography of veteran film director Brian Desmond Hurst, “The Empress of Ireland”.

It’s an incredibly entertaining book about a man who is a born raconteur and invented himself to almost mythic proportions, and it’s possibly only on two occassions that his friend, and later biographer, Robbins sat him down with a tape recorder and documented the truth on two very moving chapters in his life which up until then he had either reinvented or glossed over; his childhood and his experiences during WW1 at Gallipoli.

Even so, the book in general is a boozy romp that brings in aristocrats, film legends, spies and a dinner party waited on by almost prescient dwarves.

Hurst ended up, at his death, an almost forgotten figure despite a patchy but very successful and larger than life film directing career, directing such classics as ‘Scrooge’ with Alistair Sim, and ‘The Playboy of the Western World’.

Robbins’ book starts with this imposing white haired figure carefully carrying one orange over the threshold of the Turk’s Head in Belgravia at 11am  to a resounding chorus of ‘Fucking old queen’ from a bunch of muddy labourers drinking a morning Guiness at the bar. Hurst carefully carries his orange to the bar and passes it to the landlord who precedes to halve it and squeeze one half into a chamagne glass, in preparation of Hurst’s breakfast; his first Buck’s Fizz of the morning. Upon recieving his draught, he offers the labourers fresh drinks, and they relucltantly accept, knowing this makes them beholden to his generosity and complicit to his behaviour.

“Your very good health,” says Brian raising his glass in a toast. ” And by the way gentlemen, I am not an old queen, I am…The Empress of Ireland!“

The whole book is a paean to Hurst’s wit and storytelling, far more hilarious than the funniest ‘comic’ novel, and while I can certainly do it little justice, I recommend heartily as one of the best books I read in 2010. 

For more information on the most prolific Irish film director see the official legacy website http://www.briandesmondhurst.org/home2.html

The Empress of Ireland

The job is now to decide which book to read first. Do i just make a long arm for Richmal Crompton’s ‘More William’ on that high shelf, or scour the bedroom for that 2 volume edition of Rousseau’s ‘Confessions’ or just crawl back into bed with Charles Burns new comic ‘X’ed out’.

Common sense says to avoid library fines (imaginary ones in my case, the lack of which being one of the few remaining perks of the job). With this in mind I’ll root around and finish up, or just plain return, the remainder lending stock that has grabbed my interest whilst shelving/unpacking/repairing at work. First on the list then shall be to finish up the incredibly entertaining biography of veteran film director Brian Desmond Hurst – ‘The Empress of Ireland’ by Christopher Robbins’