The Writer in Disguise with Alan Bennett Autograph Postcard to Michael Burgess, 1989
Offered here is an original autograph postcard from the acclaimed English playwright, author, actor and screenwriter, Alan Bennett. It is offered together with his book The Writer in Disguise, in which the postcard was found.
Alan Bennett Autograph Postcard - Background Note
Original handwritten and signed postcard from Alan Bennett to Revd Michael Burgess, postmarked London NW, 14 February 1989, addressed to:
Revd Michael Burgess
St Deiniol's Library
Hawarden, Clwyd
Message reads:
"Your note much appreciated. No ideas at all for a second series - Have just finished on the South Bank at the NT. The picture overleaf could be from here, now. Alan Bennett."
The reference to "NT" clearly indicates the National Theatre on London's South Bank, where Bennett was actively working at the time. The mention of "no ideas at all for a second series" very likely refers to Bennett's hugely successful Talking Heads, first broadcast in 1988, making this an appealing contemporary association with one of his best-known television works.
The recipient is almost certainly Michael Burgess (1939-2010), then associated with St Deiniol's Library (now Gladstone's Library) at Hawarden, and later Bishop of Chester. Burgess had a direct literary connection to Bennett, later publishing Lifting Heaven: The Fiction of Alan Bennett (1999), a full-length critical study of Bennett's work, making this a particularly attractive association between author and commentator.
The postcard itself is additionally appealing for being written on a Labour Party "Workless" exhibition postcard, which Bennett wryly references in his note: "The picture overleaf could be from here, now." This dry political humour is characteristically Bennett.
The book accompanying the postcard is The Writer in Disguise by Alan Bennett - a first edition Faber and Faber paperback, published in London in 1985. In very good condition. Soundly bound. A couple of small marks to front cover. Text is clean with some age-toning to extremities.
Text in English.
256pp.
Dimensions: approx 197mm high x 125mm wide x 15mm deep.
Weight: approximately 234g (unpacked).