{"id":137,"date":"2016-07-14T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T14:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/07\/14\/the-lady-in-the-van-by-alan-bennett-uk-1989\/"},"modified":"2021-07-08T10:55:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T00:55:17","slug":"the-lady-in-the-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/the-lady-in-the-van\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett, UK, 1989"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

At ninety-two very small pages, this is a <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>‘<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>book<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>‘ <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>that can easily be read in an hour or so. Bennett, a playwright, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>wrote <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/i>The Lady in the Van <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/i>from<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i> a collection of diary entries he made over a fifteen year period. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>It is non-fiction and tells about eccentric, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>elderly<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i> Miss Shepherd, who parked her<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>self and her <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>van in Bennett’s <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>London <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>driveway; <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>both <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>stayed there for fifteen years until she was eventually removed by the undertaker <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>and the van was towed off to a fate unknown<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Bennett retains the diary-entry format with many, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>possibly not so interesting, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>entries obviously removed. What remains tells the story of <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>the strange relationship that developed between Miss Shepherd and Bennett, and we are given small glimpses of who Miss Shepherd might have been in her pre-van days and why her life may<\/i><\/span> have spiralled so miserably out of control. There is sadness, but there is also a lot of humour, and as we turn the pages we become more and more aware of the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>bond between these two vastly different people.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
Photo of Alan Bennett from<\/span> www.theguardian.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Miss Shepherd ob<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>viously had an enormous effect on Bennett. Not only did Bennett turn a selection of his diary entries into a small book, he also, i<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>n <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>1999, wrote a play (also entitled \u201cThe Lady in the Van\u201d) for which he was nominated for a number of prizes. In 2015, the play, u<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>nder the supervision of Bennett, was turned into a film with Maggie Smith in the title roll.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
A thought-provoking look at <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>those <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>relationships <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>that we do not choose but that choose us.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Image from the film from eclipsemagazine.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At ninety-two very small pages, this is a ‘book‘ that can easily be read in an hour or so. Bennett, a playwright, wrote The Lady in the Van from a collection of diary entries he made over a fifteen year period. It is non-fiction and tells about eccentric, elderly Miss Shepherd, who parked herself and … <\/p>\n

+ Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}