Hello, Larry, so good to see you again! I do remember the Book Exchange but not the VAT stuff but since you were really in charge of that, your memory will be better than mine.
Do you recommend the movie Capote then? I had it once on Netflix and sent it back, didn't have time to see it then. I love Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who played the part. Maybe I need to get it back again.
The new Vanity Fair article shows that Capote (I've got that book, too, somewhere) certainly was an odd duck, got way caught up in the Clutter murders and especially with the one perpetrator, and his final ms is missing. Joanne Carson, wife of the late Johnny Carson, said he gave her the day before he died a key to a safe deposit box in CA which they think contains the ms, but did not say which bank. They think perhaps Walls Fargo. Perhaps it never existed or perhaps it's waiting to be discovered.
Babi, they do say who Ian Fleming preferred, and it's in the letters to the Editor column: "Ian Fleming had requested of Harry Saltzman that a British actor, Michael Craig, be offered the role, as Fleming thought he had the 'right impression' of his hero, James Bond. Craig was under contract with the Rank Organization at the time, and the executive producer, Earl St. John, said they would lend him out for a million pounds. Saltzman, with a small budget to begin with, said there were many actors around who could play the part and then approached Sean Connery, although he was thought to be less elegant and rougher shod."
Pedln, The King's Speech was written by Mark Logue, grandson of Lionel Logue, the speech therapist. His introduction is quite interesting as he's also the custodian of the Logue Archives, which were incomplete when he began his book. One of his cousins, learning of the book, said she had found boxes of documents relating to his grandfather and she was not sure they would be of use but he was welcome to come look. He found three volumes of letters, between the King and Lionel Logue, over 30 years, boxes of scrap books Lionel kept, a diary that Logue's wife kept, hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents. As he was writing the book, he was also invited onto the set of the coming movie as the producers had contacted the family about different things.
So it's sort of his own effort at knowing more about his grandfather: genealogy. But it's interesting. Lots of photographs right on the pages, not on photo paper, tho there's a section of that too.
The introduction concludes with the author's email address, in case anyone who had been a patient or was related or had any information of any kind can contact him.
Am almost finished with it, and have enjoyed it, it's low key and fascinating. I also enjoyed the article on Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey.
