Lady Hamilton

There's an interview with Gore Vidal in The Spectator this week where he tells the interviewer to get a copy of the film "That Lady Hamilton" - "Get it out," he said. "You'll never stop crying."
I remember seeing the film many years ago but I didn't cry. It had Laurence Olivier as Nelson and Vivien Leigh as Lady Hamilton and it didn't make much impression on me.
I was surprised to see, looking up Google, that there were two writers of the film script one of whom was R.C.Sherriff, whose most famous play is "Journey's End".
My favourite play of Sherriff's is "Badger's Green". Or rather, it was. I'm not sure if it would work now on stage, a bit old fashioned, probably out of date now.
I wrote a play about the first world war called "Aspects of War"; it played for a few nights in Cardiff only to be forgotten.
One of the cast said to me later, on his seeing "Journey's End" : "Your play is better than that."
Well, Sherriff's play is still going strong after many, many years while mine..... Never mind.
Incidentally, I prefer the Terence Rattigan's play about the Nelson/Hamilton affair - "A Bequest to the Nation".

To "gloria" who commented on my piece on "Edgar Wallace" (April 21st.): I will look up the reference to Emlyn Williams and Charles Laughton and tell you which page its on in a future blog. Thanks for the remarks, enjoyed them.

To "anonymous" who commented on "Cats In Sitges" (April 24th) : Good to hear the cats are still there. Interesting what you say about them. Maybe they are "protected" by the local authority as a tourist attraction.

To "anonymous" who commented on "Short Stories" (10th Feb.) : Yes, blogs are no substitute for short stories. What to do? Not much I'm afraid, though American mags are still publishing some and I believe Canada is quite strong in this field too. It's a tough world for writers and it seems to be getting tougher.
A Cardiff based literary agent asked me what advice I'd give to new writers; I said:"If they're going to invest any money in it, put it on a horse instead." Wish I could be more hopeful but, alas, I can't.