The Letters (film)

The Letters is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed and written by William Riead. The film stars Juliet Stevenson, Max von Sydow, Rutger Hauer and Priya Darshini. It was produced by Colin Azzopardi, Tony Cordeaux, and Lisa Riead. It was released theatrically by Freestyle Releasing on December 4, 2015.

Plot

Mother Teresa (Juliet Stevenson), recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, is considered one of the greatest humanitarians of modern times. Her selfless commitment changed hearts, lives and inspired millions throughout the world. The film is told through personal letters she wrote over the last forty years of her life and reveal a troubled and vulnerable woman who grew to feel an isolation and an abandonment by God. The story is told from the point of view of a Vatican priest (Max von Sydow) charged with the task of investigating acts and events following her death. He recounts her life’s work, her political oppression, her religious zeal, and her unbreakable spirit.

The Letters (novel)

The Letters is a novel by American writers Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger. The novel was first printed in September 2008 in hardcover by Bantam Dell, a division of Random House, Inc. The Letters is a fiction, romantic novel.

The Letters tells a story of Sam and Hadley West who write each other a series of highly emotional letters during the course of their separation. The letters outline the course of their relationship before and after the death of their son in an airplane crash.

Plot summary

While Sam and Hadley are thousands of miles apart, waiting for their divorce to come through, they begin to exchange letters. The letters start out with Sam and Hadley West trying to come to terms with the death of their only child and son Paul. Sam believes that going to Alaska and taking the dangerous trek by plane and dog sled to see the place where Paul died will help him come to terms with his son’s death. Hadley rents a cottage, haunted by the previous owner, off the coast of Maine in a town called Monhegan. Hadley chose Monhegan because she felt like she needed to get away and she liked the idea that it was an artist’s colony in the summer. Hadley came to Monhegan in October, so all the artist’s were already leaving. Hadley liked the desolation of the island because she could be left alone to grieve in solitude. While in Monhegan she began to paint again. The letters consist of the feelings and worry that they were unable to say during their marriage. The letters allow the West’s to reconnect and become the family that would have been if their son had lived. As Sam is on his journey to the crash site he experiences many dangers and is constantly risking his life. Sam's wife Hadley is on a journey of the soul to rid her of the grief she carries from the death of her only child.

Clive King

David Clive King (born 24 April 1924) is an English author best known for his children's book Stig of the Dump (1963). He served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the last years of the Second World War and then worked for the British Council in a wide range of overseas postings, from which he later drew inspiration for his novels.

Clive King was born in Richmond, London, in April 1924 and grew up in Ash, Kent. He was educated at The King's School, Rochester, Kent from 1933 to 1941 and then at Downing College, Cambridge, where he obtained a BA in English. From 1943 to 1946 He served as a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, which took him to the Arctic, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Australia, Malaya and Japan, where he saw the then recent devastation of Hiroshima.

After leaving the Reserve King began working as an officer of the British Council and was posted to Amsterdam as an Administrative Officer (1948–50). Subsequent postings for the British Council included Belfast, as a Student Welfare Officer (1950–51); Aleppo, Syria, as a Lecturer (1951–54); Damascus, as a Visiting Professor at the University (1954–55); Beirut, as Lecturer and Director of Studies (1960–66); and Madras, as an Education Officer (1971–73). He also served as a Warden for East Sussex County Council from 1955 to 1960. He attended the London School of Oriental and African Studies from 1966 to 1967, then served as an Education Adviser for the East Pakistan Education Centre in Dhaka from 1967 to 1971.

King Crimson

King Crimson are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The band have undergone numerous formations throughout its history of which 21 musicians have been members; since 2013 it has consisted of Robert Fripp, Jakko Jakszyk, Tony Levin, Mel Collins, Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison and Bill Rieflin. Fripp is the only consistent member of the group, and is considered their leader and motive force. The band has earned a large cult following.

Developed from the unsuccessful trio Giles, Giles and Fripp, the band were seminal in the progressive rock genre in their first five years with their standard of instrumentation and complex song structures. Their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), remains their most successful and influential with its elements of jazz, classical, and experimental music. Their success increased following an opening act performance for The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, London, in 1969. Following the less successful In the Wake of Poseidon (1970), Lizard (1970), and Islands (1971), the group reached a new creative peak with Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974). Fripp disbanded the group in 1974.