Description

Book Synopsis

1962: A public school on the South Downs.

John Blakemore is a solitary boy who finds it impossible either to understand or adapt to the ways of the school. His adolescent earnestness put off teacher and pupil alike. And now suddenly he seems to be in danger of losing his only friend.

David Hare''s emotional new play, written at the invitation of the Rattigan estate as a response to The Browning Version, is a meditation on faith, learning and teenage friendship, played against the backdrop of a Britain still fighting to maintain an established rule.

Collected with South Downs is the text of Hare''s lecture Mere Fact, Mere Fiction, delivered to the Royal Society of Literature in 2010. In a famous defence of documentary theatre, the author celebrates the power of metaphor to transform factual quite as much as fictional material.

South Downs and Mere Fact Mere Fiction

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    A Paperback / softback by David Hare

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      Book details

      Publisher Faber & Faber
      Published 15 September 2011
      ISBN-13 9780571278299
      978-0571278299
      ISBN-10 0571278299
      Also in:
      Poetry Politics, Philosophy & Society Schools and pre-schools

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      1962: A public school on the South Downs.

      John Blakemore is a solitary boy who finds it impossible either to understand or adapt to the ways of the school. His adolescent earnestness put off teacher and pupil alike. And now suddenly he seems to be in danger of losing his only friend.

      David Hare''s emotional new play, written at the invitation of the Rattigan estate as a response to The Browning Version, is a meditation on faith, learning and teenage friendship, played against the backdrop of a Britain still fighting to maintain an established rule.

      Collected with South Downs is the text of Hare''s lecture Mere Fact, Mere Fiction, delivered to the Royal Society of Literature in 2010. In a famous defence of documentary theatre, the author celebrates the power of metaphor to transform factual quite as much as fictional material.

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