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Esther Freud |
Camden book review | Esther Freud | Love Falls | Muswell Hill Bookshop
Esther Freud shares her fears about the rise of knife crime with Peter Gruner
HER sensitive evocation of the coming of age of a 16 year old girl, in the novel Love Falls, is released in paperback this week amid talks of turning it into an ITV drama.
And next Wednesday Esther Freud, who lives in Highgate, will be reading a particularly dramatic episode from the book at a Muswell Hill bookshop.
Ms Freud, the great-granddaughter of Sigmund, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, is adept at squeezing the emotions out of a character.
In the excerpt she’ll be reading, the girl’s ageing father Lambert tries to prove to his daughter Lara and her friends that he is still young and agile, by jumping foolhardily from the top of a waterfall in Italy.
Lambert is not only injured, but seriously wounds his pride and humiliates himself disastrously among the young people he is trying to impress.
Talking about the prospect of the book being filmed, Ms Freud says: “It’s all very exciting and a possible opportunity for new, unknown young actors straight out of drama school to take on the challenge.”
Married to actor David Morrissey, with whom she has three children, she is currently working on a book about actors – due out in 2010.
As a parent she is worried about the rise of knife crime. “The idea that my 13-year-old son will want his independence soon is quiet scary,” she says. “You have to let them have a certain amount of freedom, otherwise it is damaging. But it is still difficult to feel relaxed about it.”
Regarding violence on the streets, Ms Freud believes that in some cases, at least, art and sport can rescue young people from a life of crime. “I suppose I think if they have a passion for drama or sport, for example, disaffected kids can hopefully be pulled in the right direction,” she says.
She is also worried about the relentless way young people are examined in every aspect of their education.
“Not everyone is academic. I wasn’t. Yet there is this obsession with testing and exams. When I was at school the only exams we took were O and A-levels. Now there are tests for everything.”
She didn’t go to university, but attended a drama course in Holborn before switching to writing.
Her first novel, Hideous Kinky, evoked the bohemian childhood of two young children accompanying their mother in her search for freedom and adventure in 1960s Morocco. The story is also well known from the film adaptation that followed, starring Kate Winslett. Since then she has written five further novels, attracting prizes and critical acclaim.
Peter Gruner
Love Falls is published in paperback by Bloomsbury, £5.99. |
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