Lately #37: The woman behind E.T., memoir gate and Wimbledon pals
Five things to entertain you, and one piece of advice.
On Sundays, we share some of our favourite finds from the week in our Lately newsletter.
Hello folks (old and new!). This week, Gillian’s flown to London to escape the heat (and arrived to thunderstorm warnings) while I stay in Dubai with the trusty aircon. There’s always a mass exodus in the summer months, but staying has its own charm. The city slows down and there’s a languidness that reminds me of old Dubai. No rush, less social pressure … all the more time to read, listen and watch to collate some recommendations for you.
Hope you find something you love,
Yara
An interesting backstory read…
We owe a flurry of new subscribers (welcome, welcome!) to
sharing our latest edition of Movie She Wrote; backstories that highlight the female writers behind some of our most loved movies.Based on the enthusiasm for Anita Loos: The Brunette Behind Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, we thought we’d share the backstory that kicked off the series.
Meet Melissa Mathison. We love her.
Movie, She Wrote: E.T. and Melissa Mathison
We tend to think of E.T. as belonging to Steven Spielberg.
Something we should all be watching…
If I’m honest, Dennis Lehane’s latest crime drama Smoke (starring Taron Egerton who he worked with on Black Bird) gets off to a slow start, BUT there are so many encouraging reviews that I’ve persisted. The Guardian claims “no TV show has ever been worth sticking with more”…
Egerton plays Dave, an ex-firefighter turned arson investigator, who teams up with an ambitious cop (Jurnee Smollet) to catch serial arsonists. The series is based on the real life of arsonist John Orr, and is inspired by Fire Bug, a popular true-crime podcast that looked into his case. The pathology of John Orr is what drew Lehane to the story: “He steeped himself in denial at such a stunning level.”
In a streaming world vying for viewer attention, the series writers made the bold move of waiting until the end of episode 2 to serve up a hook. Lehane speaks about the balance he was trying to strike when timing the reveal (no spoilers here):
“We asked ourselves how can we get in quicker but still not lose anything. I like a slow build. There are some shows that take off like a rocket ship and then end on some big cliff-hanger, and you lose a lot in terms of story, character and richness.”
What follows is an unpredictable cat-and-mouse game between arsonists and investigators. If gritty drama, unhinged characters and plot twists are what light you up (can’t help myself), Smoke is your weekend watch.
A podcast you’ll want to share…
“A bomb has gone off in the publishing world.” Richard Osman (author)
In the last few weeks, the publishing world has been rocked by controversy around a memoir that I (along with 2 million others) read and loved. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn is the story of a wife and her terminally ill husband (Moth) who find themselves homeless, through no fault of their own, and make the brave decision to walk all 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path of the UK - surrendering to the healing power of nature.
Even if you haven’t read it, stick with me because the fallout is interesting…
Fresh off the heels of the release of the screen adaptation (starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs) this investigative piece by The Observer alleges that there are outright falsehoods in Raynor’s tale that undercut the whole spirit of the story.
In fact, Raynor and Moth’s legal names are Sally and Tim Walker, and far from being the victims of circumstance, it would seem that they lost their house in part due to dishonesty. (The Observer piece suggests Sally embezzled money from her employer and struggled to repay the debt when discovered). It also casts doubt on Moth’s illness.
The whole convoluted drama is discussed in a recent episode of The Rest is Entertainment podcast with Richard Osman and Marina Hyde. It’s an insightful insider look that tackles the countless questions that have been stirred up.
Does it matter that the premise on which the book was conceived was sanitised? Who is liable if some of the facts behind a memoir are false? What about all the money that has been made?
This is an interesting take from them:
“To some extent, all memoirs are reality bending because you're not writing them contemporaneously and usually you want to be the hero of your own memoir. Order is being imposed on this tide of experience that happened back in the day and a narrative has been created. So to some extent, all memoirs have those sorts of things.”
For lovers of the book - how much has this mattered to you? I’m including a link to Raynor Winn’s response to the allegations here.
Is anyone else as transfixed as I am?
Something that may surprise you…
Screen to page? I recently discovered that there was a time that books were so popular (in the 70s and 80s) that they would publish novelisations of popular movies. Adaptations in reverse.
This still happens today, but it’s far less common. Puts a spanner in the works of ‘always read the book before the movie’!
Here are a few novelisations that may surprise you…
Something for a brain break…
It’s only been a week but I’m already missing Wimbledon - so much so that I decided to serve up a Wimbledon celebrity edition of pick your seat. Who would you sit with?
Personally I’m torn between the fun of G1 (the champagne corks would be popping), and the low maintenance socialising of H2 (I could borrow Sir Ian’s binoculars).
A piece of advice:
Eleanor Roosevelt on getting out of your own way:
“Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don’t be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticising you. The chances are that they aren’t paying any attention to you. It’s your attention to yourself that is so stultifying.”
Smoke sounds intriguing and it's on Apple so will have to squeeze it into my three-month trial 😅
I bet Gillian Anderson would have much preferred to star in the movie based on The Salt Path scandal as it'll be a lot juicier...
I don't like sports but if I was offered the opportunity to seat next to Paul and Andrew I could change my mind. And for a chance to speak to Hugh (whenever he awakes) I'd be willing to endure a whole tennis match!
Absolutely loved this week’s piece. If I haven’t said it already, you write so well. Bringing every story alive for me. I miss Wimbledon too, my pick would be with Hugh. I love that man. All other stories - so so good. Will look up salt path podcast reco. Sending cool hugs for the summer to you.