Cheltenham Literature Festival Archives

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory’s Love Poetry Performance Rediscovered

On October 10, 2021October 10, 2021 By Gingersnap4Helen No Comments

Cheltenham Literature Festival Revisited

by Andrew Holgate | The Sunday Times | October 9, 2021

There have been some great Cheltenham Literature Festival moments over the years – Hilary Clinton in 2017, looking back on her presidential defeat the year before; a 92-year-old David Attenborough charming the audience in 2018. But surely one of the most electric hours in the festival’s history came in 2014, with the appearance on stage of the married couple Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory.

Here consists of a recording that was thought to have been lost, an electric performance at the 2014 Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival – one of the most memorable in the festival’s history – by Damian and Helen of love poems from the poetry collection The Love Book edited by Allie Esiri.

Earlier this summer, Damian rediscovered a recording of the event, which he offers here now to listeners as a tribute to his wife. To hear the recording in full, click here.

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Appearances Audio Books Personal and Family Life Poetry

Helen and Damian Read Poetry at Cheltenham Literature Festival

On October 13, 2014April 12, 2021 By Gingersnap4Helen No Comments

The Love Book: Great Love Poems

by Damianista | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | October 13, 2014

One of the main poetry projects Helen and Damian support is the Love Book project including a book as well as an app, a brilliant collection of classic and contemporary love poems that vary from Shakespeare to E.E. Cummings to Maya Angelou.

It is always a pleasure to talk about the Love Book project and an absolutely delightful Love Book event that I was extremely lucky to attend in October 2014 at Cheltenham Literature Festival: Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory read Great Love Poems. followed by a wonderful book signing by Allie, Damian and Helen!

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Interviews Medea Print Media

Helen McCrory: A Drama Queen Slays Them with Her Greek Turn

On August 17, 2014April 15, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

As a child she sliced a beehive in half with a machete; now the feisty actress is wowing theatre-goers with her gory portrayal of the murderous matriarch Medea

August 17, 2014 | The Sunday Times

04 April 2011 – Helen McCrory attends the grand opening of Harry Potter: The Exhibition on April 4, 2011, at the Discovery Times Square Exposition Center, in New York, NY.

Tickets for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet may have sold out in record time last week, but Helen McCrory’s Medea is the theatrical event of the moment. Avid theatre-goers who take in both may find the Shakespeare a little pale after McCrory’s “stunning” performance in Euripides’s blood-soaked tale of a woman who wreaks revenge on her faithless husband by killing their children. “It’s the reverse of Hamlet because he spends three hours worrying and does nothing, whereas Medea takes an hour and 15, massacres the whole f****** stage and walks off,” McCrory said before the production opened. “But it’s great because she uses every shred of femininity that she has to do it and she also has the complexity of guilt.”

McCrory added that Medea was “one of the greatest parts you’ll ever play” and the critics seem united in lauding this as her own best performance. Maxie Szalwinska, theatre reviewer for The Sunday Times, said McCrory “ascends to greatness” in the classical role. “She’s one of those actors you can sense has a great performance in them if a director can unlock it. This is McCrory’s,” Szalwinska said.

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