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You are here: Home / Archives for beards

Previously Unreleased Photographs Of Roald Dahl

November 23, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

A photographer has spoken exclusively about the moment he came face to face with one of the world’s best-loved authors – Roald Dahl.

John Stewart Farrier, who has captured many illustrious faces on film including Margaret Thatcher, Sir Cliff Richard and John Lennon, has released some previously unseen images of [Roald Dahl].

from Kent Online’s report:

Mr Farrier describes the moment they met: “It was raining heavily on the day I arrived at Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire – the home of Roald Dahl – author, fighter pilot and screenwriter.

“I was looking forward to this photographic session, especially when my daughter Sarah was one of his greatest fans.

“I tapped on the front door – it suddenly opened and there was Roald greeting me saying ‘I don’t like people with beards, they have something to hide’.”

He says that there was tension as he entered Roald’s hallway and he thought it would be a quick, abrupt session with little conversation, but it wasn’t long before the ball started rolling and the chat started flowing.

Mr Farrier said: “Roald said ‘thank god we are not talking about my books and I certainly don’t want to be photographed in my garden hut. Everyone does that’.

“I said it suited me fine and told him to just lounge around on the sofa. He said he was going to have a cigarette while we chatted. I asked him ‘have you always been such a grumpy old man?’ as I hid behind my Nikon camera waiting for an immediate reply asking me to leave… but it never happened.

“We both began to laugh and thereafter it was just magic – the ice had broken.”

Two further photos of Dahl via Roald Dahl photographer John Stewart Farrier describes day he spent with the great children's author.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: beards, Dahl, photographer

Joseph Connolly, on bookshops and beards

April 6, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

Observer

Before you published your first book in 1977, you were a bookseller. What do you think about what is happening to bookshops now?

With the book trade, if anyone tells you they know what’s going on, they’re lying. Everyone is winging it, and it changes from month to month. It’s quite alarming. Bookshops are closing every week because Amazon and the wholesalers are deliberately squeezing them out. If you’re notreviewed in the nationals and on the front table in Waterstone’s, you may as well set fire to your books. I think soon there will be a few big-name authors at the front [of the average bookshop] and cookbooks and art books at the back. I’m depressing myself now. Maybe one ought to get a proper job.

You have magnificent facial hair. How did that come about?

At the age of 19, I inherited an electric shaver which gave me a terrible rash. I decided to stop inflicting this pain on myself. The amazing question is not "Why do you have a beard?" but "Why do 99% of the male population shave every day?" It is quite unnatural.

via Joseph Connolly: 'Each gender requires the exclusive company of their own sex' | Books | The Observer.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: beards, books, bookseller, bookshops

The 10 Most Impressive Beards In Literature

July 31, 2013 By achuka Leave a Comment

The 10 Most Impressive Beards In Literature
Prolific writers, prolific facial hair. Here are the top 10 literary beards ranked in order of increasing awesomeness.

via The 10 Most Impressive Beards In Literature.

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: beards, writers

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