I’ll Always Go Back To That Church

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6th January, 2013

Today is the birthday of my brother, Anthony Minghella. He would have been 59.

Last year someone sent me a link to a wonderful photograph of him on location, which I hadn’t seen before. I wanted to share it today, but alas I can’t find it. There are so many photos on the net, I’m just trawling through a million Ants, and after a full hour, I’ve given up.

Maybe it’s a lesson. Not to dwell in the past. Not to wallow in a patchwork of Google thumbnails.

He used to say that you should never let a day go by without creating something. That means something new. That means living, not dwelling.

Still, I confess, I do dwell, and please allow me to do so each year on 6th January.

Perhaps my failure to find the “right” photo of Anthony is indicative of a certain elusive quality. He was famously adaptable. He seemed to be able to turn his hand to anything: theatre, radio, TV, film, opera.

He hated, as all artists do, to be pinned down. Maybe that’s why I can’t find the photo. Maybe there isn’t just one.

Just as there isn’t ONE photo of him, there isn’t ONE photo that captures his work.

But there is a “movie moment” I find myself returning to. It captures his ambition, his originality, his soaring big-heartedness. On a day like today, this seems a good enough place to go.

I’ll always go back to that church.

English Patient

A Hitch Hiker’s Guide To Philosophy

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I am proud to present, from the archives, A Hitch Hiker’s Guide To Philosophy.

This video was made circa 1990 as a taster for a proposed television series, A Hitch Hiker’s Guide To Philosophy.

The writer and presenter is Bob Hargrave, who until his death in August 2012, was Lecturer in Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford.

The television series was never made, and the video was only recently rediscovered after more than twenty years. Many thanks to Tomboy Films for organising its transfer from prehistoric u-matic tape format onto DVD.

At the time of writing, it is rumoured that Balliol College will be placing a bench in Bob’s favourite spot outside the Buttery, with the words “Bob Hargrave (1949 – 2012) Philosopher. Sceptic. Corrupter of Youth.”

If the rumour is true, then – “in a very real sense”* – this video has provided his epitaph.

My thanks to everyone involved in the making of the video, to the brilliant Kirk Jones whose directing talent was obvious even then, and especially to Bryan Loftus and Glynis Murray of Xenium Productions who enthusiastically supported this extra-curricular outing.

Enjoy!

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*Official Hargraveism, often – but not in this case – used with irony.

Sebastian Peake

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Hugely saddened to report the recent death of Sebastian Peake, my friend and wine dealer and son of Mervyn Peake.

He was lovely. A decent man and a sensitive man. His stories (and memoirs) spoke to themes which interest me – living alongside a writer, living in the shadow of fame. The pride and displacement of that. He may have been taken to school by Dylan Thomas, or have found Graham Greene sitting in his living room, but I suspect it was a tough way to be a little boy. He seemed to be stuck in his boyhood sometimes, or at least to be able to travel back there in an instant, acquiring a far-away and somewhat lost expression – grief, I imagine, for more than just his parents.

When it came to wine, he was a magician – telepathic, both about what you might like and about what you might be able to afford!

I’m so proud to have known him, and I send my deepest condolences to his siblings and all the family. He will be very much missed.