An Alan Bennett’s quote in a recent English Writing Magazine: A writer has to use whatever is to hand in
the way of experience. He or she is in the business of making mountains out of
molehills.
Light-bulb moment! So simple, why didn’t I think of that? Mind you,
Alan Bennett is knee deep in humour and there’s no denying he does it
brilliantly.
Take The Lady and the Van.
Most of you, if you haven’t read the book, (shame on you) will have seen the film.
Such a simple, unlikely but for him, everyday experience and what has he done
with it? Turned it into magic.
Molehills into mountains? Who knows? But although the behaviour of
the main protagonist, Miss Shepherd, comes across as totally outlandish, even
bizarre, it is all entirely possible. And that’s where Alan Bennett comes in.
His masterly hand has transformed a barely endurable situation for him into a
delightful world-wide money-spinner. Sigh!
Looking back at his quotation, you can only be filled with
admiration for his ability to spin a pile of straw into a barrow heaped with
gold.
Having said that, I shall remember his ‘molehill/mountain’ statement
and will see what I can do with some everyday happening. (I suspect a
retirement village is likely to be a bottomless pit of Miss Shepherd events.)
Pam Laird
Another writer who turns molehills into mountains is the wonderful Deric Longden (have I spelt that right?). If you love cats you will love his books. He also wrote very movingly about the death of his first wife in Diana's Story and then about his mother in Lost for Words. But I think his cat stories are wonderful. Talk about making a molehill into a mountain, Longden turns a cat into a lion.
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