Paul Whybrow
Full Member
I was unexpectedly forced into thinking about the price of fame yesterday evening, as I rode my bicycle into my nearest town of Saint Columb Major, for my weekly food shop and to get some exercise. Speeding towards the supermarket, I almost ran into a celebrity as he stepped off the kerb to pose with some fans for a selfie.
Cornwall is a county that's popular with holiday-makers, and derives most of its income from them. Celebrities and the Royal family love it here too, favouring a coastal resort called Rock, near Padstow, where their presence has added £500,000 to the cost of many houses. Saint Columb Major really isn't that sort of chi-chi place, being inland and rather run down, so I was surprised to see Russell Brand grinning away to please a couple of giggling girls as they took their photo with him.
He's an actor, comedian, radio host, author and activist. I admire his chutzpah, but doubt his talent and sincerity. His recent activities as an activist smack of opportunism to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Brand
Anyway, Russell was going about his business without too much bother, as people were respectful of his privacy. I bumped into the librarian, learning that he owned a house locally - his bolt hole. It made me think of how anonymity can be found in sleepy places and also in the city throng. I've been reading Lawrence Block's handbooks on writing recently, in which he said how much he liked being able to blend-in unrecognised as a famous writer, as he explored his beloved New York on the subway and walking neighbourhoods that he wasn't familiar with to research stories.
Another famous writer got attention yesterday, perhaps the most famous writer - one who even non-readers would recognise. It wasn't for anything that she'd done as such, but J.K. Rowling had her bushy Leylandii hedge trimmed. I will refrain from making puerile jokes about this, but it was deemed newsworthy enough to make the media :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ry-traffic-lights-Leylandii-bush-trimmed.html
That Rowling needs to hide away behind tall hedges, walls and CCTV cameras to get some privacy doesn't surprise me, for she's adored and as a very wealthy woman is also a target for criminals and terrorists. I know one of her neighbours at her Kensington mansion, who gets more than a little nervous when he sees her bodyguard and hired goons checking her car for explosive devices. We all want to achieve recognition for our writing and some level of financial success, but there are drawbacks for the super-successful.
Various authors have been famously reclusive, including Thomas Pynchon, J.D. Salinger, Cormac McCarthy, Harper Lee and Hunter S Thompson. Sometimes this signalled a decline in output, though some were notably irascible and private people.
Have any of you ever seen a writer on the street, or in their natural habitat - a literary conference or bookshop? Were you star-struck or unimpressed ?
Cornwall is a county that's popular with holiday-makers, and derives most of its income from them. Celebrities and the Royal family love it here too, favouring a coastal resort called Rock, near Padstow, where their presence has added £500,000 to the cost of many houses. Saint Columb Major really isn't that sort of chi-chi place, being inland and rather run down, so I was surprised to see Russell Brand grinning away to please a couple of giggling girls as they took their photo with him.
He's an actor, comedian, radio host, author and activist. I admire his chutzpah, but doubt his talent and sincerity. His recent activities as an activist smack of opportunism to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Brand
Anyway, Russell was going about his business without too much bother, as people were respectful of his privacy. I bumped into the librarian, learning that he owned a house locally - his bolt hole. It made me think of how anonymity can be found in sleepy places and also in the city throng. I've been reading Lawrence Block's handbooks on writing recently, in which he said how much he liked being able to blend-in unrecognised as a famous writer, as he explored his beloved New York on the subway and walking neighbourhoods that he wasn't familiar with to research stories.
Another famous writer got attention yesterday, perhaps the most famous writer - one who even non-readers would recognise. It wasn't for anything that she'd done as such, but J.K. Rowling had her bushy Leylandii hedge trimmed. I will refrain from making puerile jokes about this, but it was deemed newsworthy enough to make the media :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ry-traffic-lights-Leylandii-bush-trimmed.html
That Rowling needs to hide away behind tall hedges, walls and CCTV cameras to get some privacy doesn't surprise me, for she's adored and as a very wealthy woman is also a target for criminals and terrorists. I know one of her neighbours at her Kensington mansion, who gets more than a little nervous when he sees her bodyguard and hired goons checking her car for explosive devices. We all want to achieve recognition for our writing and some level of financial success, but there are drawbacks for the super-successful.
Various authors have been famously reclusive, including Thomas Pynchon, J.D. Salinger, Cormac McCarthy, Harper Lee and Hunter S Thompson. Sometimes this signalled a decline in output, though some were notably irascible and private people.
Have any of you ever seen a writer on the street, or in their natural habitat - a literary conference or bookshop? Were you star-struck or unimpressed ?
I've belonged to two Romance Writers of America chapters (one in Nashville and one here in Indianapolis), and we had multi-published authors in both. I was in the same chapters as Sherrilyn Kenyon, JT Ellison, Kim Law, Trish Milburn, Annie Solomon, Lynn Raye Harris, Beth Pattillo, CJ Redwine, Cheryl Brooks, and Sandy James, just to name a few. 
) on screen husband from Keeping up Appearances. Too lazy to google their real names 
(see what I did there)
