Clemence Dane

Clemence Dane was the pseudonym of Winifred Ashton (21 February 1888 in Blackheath, England, United Kingdom – 28 March 1965 in London), an English novelist and playwright.

Life and career[link]

After completing her education, she went to Switzerland to work as a French tutor, but returned home after a year. She studied art in London and Germany. After the First World War, she taught at a girls’ school, and began writing. She took the pseudonym "Clemence Dane" from the church, St Clement Danes on the Strand, London.

Her first novel Regiment of Women was written in 1917, a study of life in a girls' school. In 1919 she wrote Legend, the story of a group of acquaintances who debate the meaning of a dead friend's life and work. Dane's 1921 play, A Bill of Divorcement, tells the story of a daughter who cares for her deranged father. In 1932 the smash hit play was adapted for film starring Katharine Hepburn and John Barrymore. Dane began writing screenplays as well as novels. She co-wrote the screenplay for Anna Karenina starring Greta Garbo. The pinnacle of Dane’s success was winning an Academy Award with Anthony Pelissier for Vacation from Marriage, released in the United Kingdom as Perfect Strangers, starring Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr.

Dane and Helen de Guerry Simpson wrote three detective novels featuring their creation Sir John Saumarez. Both were members of the Detection Club. The first, Enter Sir John, was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1930 as Murder!. Dane contributed to the Club's serials The Scoop and The Floating Admiral.

Dane's last play Eighty in the Shade (1959) was written for and starred her friend, Dame Sybil Thorndike. She is believed to be the template of Madame Arcati, the eccentric medium in her friend Noël Coward's play, Blithe Spirit. The National Portrait Gallery contains two works by Dane, both of Coward. One is an oil painting and the other is a bronze bust. The gallery also contains a painting made of Dane by Frederic Yates.

According to Arthur Marshall she was famous for her indecent, though entirely innocent, remarks. "The physical side of life had passed her by, together with the words, slang and otherwise, that accompany it. Time and again she settled for an unfortunate word or phrase. Inviting Noël Coward to lunch during the war, when food was difficult, she boomed encouragement down the telephone; 'Do come! I've got such a lovely cock.' ('I do wish you'd call it a hen', Noel answered). To use correctly, in a literary sense, the words 'erection', 'tool' and 'spunk' was second nature to her. When wishing to describe herself as being full of life and creative energy, she chose, not really very wisely, the word 'randy'. " ^[1]

She also wrote a book on the history of Covent Garden (where she lived for a number of years), published in 1964, entitled "London has a Garden".

By the time of her death in London, on March 28, 1965, Dane had written more than 30 plays and 16 novels.

Novels and plays[link]

• Regiment of Women (1917)
• First the Blade: A Comedy of Growth (1918)
• Legend (1919)
• A Bill of Divorcement (1921)
• William Shakespeare: An Invention (1921)
• Naboth’s Vineyard: A Piece in Three Acts (1925)
• The Women’s Side (1926)
• The Babyons (1927)
• The Dearly Beloved of Benjamin Cobb (1927)
• Mariners (1927)
• Adam’s Opera: The Text of a Play (1928)
• Enter Sir John (1928) (with Helen Simpson)
• Third Person Singular (1928)
• The King Waits (1929)
• Author Unknown (1930) (with Helen Simpson)
• Broome Stages (1931)
• Theater Royale (1931)
• Re-enter Sir John (1932) (with Helen Simpson)
• Julia Newberry's Diary (1933)
• Come of Age: The Text of a Play in Music and Words (1934) (with Richard Addinsell)
• Moonlight is Silver: A Play in three acts (1934)
• Wild December: A Play in Three Acts (1934)
• Edmond Rostand's L'aiglon (1934)
• The Amateur Gentleman: From the Novel By Jeffery Farnol (1936)
• The Moon Is Feminine (1938)
• Hebbel's Herod and Mariamne (1938)
• The Arrogant History of White Ben (1939)
• He Brings Great News (1946)
• Bonny Prince Charlie (1948) (with Dorothy Middleton)
• The Flower Girls (1954)
• Eighty in the Shade (1959)
• The Godson: A Fantasy (1964)
• Claude Houghton Appreciations (with Hugh Walpole)

Notes[link]

References[link]

• http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Dane,%20Clemence (The Golden Age of Detection Wiki)
• http://www.pollingerltd.com/estates/clemence_dane.htm
• http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/clemence-dane/
• Women, a Modern Political Dictionary by Cheryl Law I.B. Tauris, London (2000). ISBN 1-86064-502-X

Richard Stewart Addinsell (13 January 1904 – 14 November 1977)^[1] was a British composer, best known for film music, primarily his Warsaw Concerto, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight (also known under the later title Suicide Squadron).

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Richard Addinsell was born in Woburn Square, London, to William Arthur Addinsell, who was a chartered accountant, and his wife, Annie Beatrice Richards.^[2] The younger of two brothers, Addinsell was educated at home before attending Hertford College, Oxford, to study Law but left after just 18 months. He then became interested in music.^[3]

Early career[link]

In 1925, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music but lasted only two terms before leaving, again without obtaining any formal qualification.^[2] By this time Addinsell was already collaborating with Noel Gay, among others, in an André Charlot Revue.^[3] More work for Charlot in 1927 was followed in 1928 by a collaboration with Clemence Dane on Adam's Opera at The Old Vic.^[2] In 1929, he completed his informal education by touring Europe to visit major theatrical and musical centres such as Berlin and Vienna.^[3]

In 1932, with Clemence Dane, he wrote the incidental music for the Broadway adaptation of Alice in Wonderland by Eva Le Gallienne, starring Josephine Hutchinson (produced 1933). In 1947 it was revived, starring Bambi Linn.

Career in film composition[link]

The Warsaw Concerto was written for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight, and continues to be a popular concert and recording piece. The film-makers wanted something in the style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, but were unable to persuade Rachmaninoff himself to write a piece. Roy Douglas orchestrated the concerto. It has been recorded over one hundred times and has sold in excess of three million copies.

Addinsell also wrote the short orchestral piece Southern Rhapsody, which was played every morning at the start of TV broadcasts by the former Southern Television company in the south of England from 1958 to 1981.

As was common with film music until the 1950s, many of Addinsell's scores were destroyed by the studios as it was assumed there would be no further interest in them. However, recordings of his film music have been issued since his death, often reconstructed by musicologist and composer Philip Lane from the soundtracks of the films themselves and conducted by Kenneth Alwyn^[4][5][6] or Rumon Gamba.^[3]

Later career[link]

He collaborated from 1942 with Joyce Grenfell for her West End revues (including Tuppence Coloured and Penny Plain) and her one-woman shows. Addinsell's music is in the "English light music" style.^[7] He regularly composed at the piano, providing other creative musicians such as Roy Douglas, Leonard Isaacs or Douglas Gamley with broad indications for their full orchestrations.^[3]

Personal Life[link]

Addinsell retired from public life in the 1960s, gradually becoming estranged from his close friends. He was, for many years, the companion of the fashion designer Victor Stiebel, who died in 1976.

Addinsell died in Brighton, Sussex in 1977. His funeral took place at Golders Green Crematorium..

In 1999 it was revealed that the royalties for Warsaw Concerto had belonged to the parents of author Jilly Cooper, whose brother advanced the theory that Addinsell - for many years their neighbour - gave it to them as thanks for being discreet about his relationship with Stiebel.^[8]

Film credits[link]

Note: The source for the television and film appearances is the British Film Institute.^[9]

References[link]

1. ^ Randel, Don Michael, ed. (1996). "Addinsell, Richard (Stewart)". The Harvard biographical dictionary of music. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. pp. 5. ISBN 0-674-37299-9. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Lamb, Andrew (2004). 'Addinsell, Richard Stewart (1904–1977)'. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2011-09-13.(Subscription required)
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Lane, Philip (2003). 'The film music of Richard Addinsell' (pdf). Chandos Records. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
4. ^ Lane, Philip (1999). 'Richard Addinsell: film music'. ASV Records [sleevenotes to CD reviewed by Lace, Ian (1999) on MusicWeb International. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
5. ^ 'Richard Addinsell: Goodbye Mr Chips / A Tale of Two Cities', recording released on Marco Polo Records (1994). Retrieved 2011-09-12.
6. ^ 'Music of Richard Addinsell including Warsaw Concerto'. ASV Records [CD reviewed by Seeley, Robert (1997) in Gramophone, September 1997, pp 121–122. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
7. ^ Lamb, Andrew (2002). 'British light music: sound good, feel good', Gramophone November 2002, pp.34–38. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
8. ^ Daily Mail, June 1 1999
9. ^ "Addinsell, Richard", British Film Institute, accessed 11 February 2012

External links[link]

• Richard Addinsell at the Internet Movie Database (including complete stream of Under Capricorn)
• Richard Addinsell at the British Film Institute website
• Southern Rhapsody - Southern Television 1950s/60s Start-up on YouTube

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