Charlotte Bingham
Autor von The Chestnut Tree
Über den Autor
Bildnachweis: charlottebingham.com
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Wissenswertes
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Bingham Brady, Charlotte Mary Thérèse
- Geburtstag
- 1942-06-29
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- UK
- Geburtsort
- Haywards Heath, Sussex, England, UK
- Wohnorte
- Haywards Heath, Sussex, England, UK
- Berufe
- novelist
screenwriter - Beziehungen
- Bingham, Madeleine (mother)
Bingham, John (father)
Brady, Terence (husband) - Preise und Auszeichnungen
- Romantic Novel of the Year Award (1994)
- Kurzbiographie
- The Honourable Charlotte Mary Thérèse Bingham was born on 29 June 1942 in Haywards Heath, Sussex, England, UK. Her father, John Bingham, the 7th Baron Clanmorris, wrote detective stories and was a secret member of MI5. Her mother, Madeleine Bingham, née Madeleine Mary Ebel, was a playwright. Charlotte first attended a school in London, but from the age of seven to 16, she went to the Priory of Our Lady's Good Counsel school in Haywards Heath. After she left school, she went to stay in Paris with some French aristocrats with the intention of learning French. She had written since she was 10 years old and her first piece of work was a thriller called Death's Ticket. She wrote her humorous autobiography, called Coronet Among the Weeds, when she was 19, and not long before her twentieth birthday a literary agent discovered her celebrating at the Ritz. He was a friend of her parents and he took off the finished manuscript of her autobiography. In 1963, this was published by Heinemanns and was a best seller.
In 1966, Charlotte Bingham's first novel, called Lucinda, was published. This was later adapted into a TV screenplay. In 1972, Coronet Among the Grass, her second autobiography, was published. This talked about the first ten years of her marriage to fellow writer Terence Brady. They couple, who have two children, later adapted Coronet Among the Grass and Coronet Among the Weeds, into the TV sitcom No, Honestly. She and her husband, Terence Brady, wrote three early episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs together, Board Wages, I Dies from Love and Out of the Everywhere. They later wrote an accompanying book called Rose's Story. They also wrote the episodes of Take Three Girls featuring Victoria (Liza Goddard). In the 1970s Brady and Bingham wrote episodes for the TV series Play for Today, Three Comedies of Marriage, Yes, Honestly and Robin's Nest. During the 1980s and 1990s they continued to write for the occasional TV series, and in 1993 adapted Jilly Cooper's novel Riders for the small screen. Since the 1980s she has become a romance novelist. In 1996 she won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association.
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Quite a good read, unlikely story, reads as though the plot evolves as the author thinks up neat twists!
I was a huge fan of Spooks (the TV series) back in the day, have a real soft spot for Mick Herron’s Dead Lions‘ fictional cast (washed-up MI5 operatives) and found the Crown TV-series episodes set in the 1950s most fascinating. So, it was no surprise this title from my library’s fabulous catalogue caught my eye.
I am sure we’ve all had moments in our life, that in hindsight we’d admit we took ourselves just a little too seriously. We learn from experience that our everyday trifles, and often privileged perspective, can result in well-intentioned actions that are at best insulting, at worst, harmful. It is in this vein that, in M15 and Me, Charlotte Bingham rather comically recounts her experiences working for that particular secret service, and more broadly, the mood and level of suspicion that had gripped London society at the beginning of the Cold War.
In this nostalgic satire, she dryly pokes fun at the passionate ineptitude with which the ‘enemies hidden in plain sight’ were hunted and the dubious value of their results and man-hours, all in the context of an increasingly outdated British class system. Continue reading > https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2020/06/mi5-and-me-by-charlotte-bingham-rev...… (mehr)
I am sure we’ve all had moments in our life, that in hindsight we’d admit we took ourselves just a little too seriously. We learn from experience that our everyday trifles, and often privileged perspective, can result in well-intentioned actions that are at best insulting, at worst, harmful. It is in this vein that, in M15 and Me, Charlotte Bingham rather comically recounts her experiences working for that particular secret service, and more broadly, the mood and level of suspicion that had gripped London society at the beginning of the Cold War.
In this nostalgic satire, she dryly pokes fun at the passionate ineptitude with which the ‘enemies hidden in plain sight’ were hunted and the dubious value of their results and man-hours, all in the context of an increasingly outdated British class system. Continue reading > https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2020/06/mi5-and-me-by-charlotte-bingham-rev...… (mehr)
If I might draw upon a common football commentary cliché, this was a book of two halves … well, that is not quite right: the first ‘half’, which I enjoyed (even relished) was more realistically just a third of the book, while the greater part of it left me tepid, if not actually decidedly cold. I had, once again, committed the almost schoolboy error of believing the various encomia splattered all over the cover of this book which, combined with the chance to buy a signed copy at Daunt Books, had me reaching blithely for my wallet. Well, they do say that a fool and his money are easily parted. QED.
The opening third of the book was indeed enjoyable, detailing Ms Bingham’s induction into the administrative ranks of MI% back in the late 1950s or early 1960s. This was not a consequence of a deep-rooted commitment to the intelligence service, nor any inherent vocation. Her appointment was, instead, a consequence of having a father who worked in the more senior ranks of the service who considered that his hitherto aimless daughter might benefit from regular and gainful employment, if for no other reason than to get her out of the house during the day. Charlotte Bingham’s father was John Bingham, the Seventh Baron Clanmorris, and has been considered by many in the know to have been an inspiration for John le Carre’s character George Smiley.
Charlotte’s early days in the Service were spent in a somewhat dreary manner, engaged in taking dictation, typing (and then frequently re-typing) memos, and managing antiquated filing systems. These tasks were conducted under the watchful and seldom satisfied eye of The Dragon, a formidable woman who had been in The Service for many years during which time she had developed a wide range of prejudices, most of which Charlotte managed inadvertently to pique. Having succeeded in passing her probation period, Charlotte is established on the books.
My cavil against the book is not based on its content, which seemed remarkably familiar to my own induction into more orthodox branches of the Home Civil Service. It is, rather, a reaction to Ms Bingham’s writing style. Over the early chapters her self-deprecating naivety was enjoyable, and even endearing, although as I progressed further through the book, it became increasingly irritating, leading to a feeling of profound annoyance.
Overall, I think I am glad that I read it, but will quite definitely not be reaching for any of her other books.… (mehr)
The opening third of the book was indeed enjoyable, detailing Ms Bingham’s induction into the administrative ranks of MI% back in the late 1950s or early 1960s. This was not a consequence of a deep-rooted commitment to the intelligence service, nor any inherent vocation. Her appointment was, instead, a consequence of having a father who worked in the more senior ranks of the service who considered that his hitherto aimless daughter might benefit from regular and gainful employment, if for no other reason than to get her out of the house during the day. Charlotte Bingham’s father was John Bingham, the Seventh Baron Clanmorris, and has been considered by many in the know to have been an inspiration for John le Carre’s character George Smiley.
Charlotte’s early days in the Service were spent in a somewhat dreary manner, engaged in taking dictation, typing (and then frequently re-typing) memos, and managing antiquated filing systems. These tasks were conducted under the watchful and seldom satisfied eye of The Dragon, a formidable woman who had been in The Service for many years during which time she had developed a wide range of prejudices, most of which Charlotte managed inadvertently to pique. Having succeeded in passing her probation period, Charlotte is established on the books.
My cavil against the book is not based on its content, which seemed remarkably familiar to my own induction into more orthodox branches of the Home Civil Service. It is, rather, a reaction to Ms Bingham’s writing style. Over the early chapters her self-deprecating naivety was enjoyable, and even endearing, although as I progressed further through the book, it became increasingly irritating, leading to a feeling of profound annoyance.
Overall, I think I am glad that I read it, but will quite definitely not be reaching for any of her other books.… (mehr)
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The story is sweeping, told at a large scale. While the blurb makes it sound as if it is primarily a novel about World War One, the war only starts after about half of the story. Before that, we accompany young Kitty Knowle while she makes her way up into better society. Although she is a member of the upper classes herself, her chances of marrying someone suitable are small since her father is a notorious gambler. When her best friend from school, Lady Partita, invites Kitty to spend Christmas with her at her family's castle in the countryside, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime.
Through Kitty's eyes, the reader experiences the luxurious lives of the aristocracy, including love, friendship and heartbreak, adventures, hopes and jealousies, until all of that comes to an expected, yet sudden stop when the war begins.
The second half deals mainly with the experiences of the women during the war, working as nurses in London or at the castle, which has been transformed into a hospital for convalescents. But there are also occasional chapters featuring the men, fighting in Belgium and France. The story features historical events such as the sinking of the Lusitania and the Battle of Loos, as well as many details of life in England. However, while there are many emotions, it is all told from a distance, and somehow it seems to be neither one thing nor the other. There are so, so many characters (not only Kitty, Partita and their respective love interests, but also a whole set of friends as well as some of their parents!), and the story spans several years, so despite the length of 602 pages, some chapters feel rushed. I think that it should have been longer to do more justice to the characters and not to cut out so much that was important, or the author should not have included quite so many characters. The distant point of view added to the feeling of reading about these people without being really close to them.
Nevertheless, I actually did enjoy this novel, and I felt with the characters, rooted for them, and was touched many times. I loved the descriptions of life at the castle before the war, which made the contrast to later events even stronger. Although I am not convinced of the distant point of view of the narration, I loved the writing style itself. I am not sure if I will read anything else by the author, but I do not regret reading this.… (mehr)