Reading about Queen Victoria has been a passion of mine since, as a child, I came across Laurence Housman's play 'Happy and Glorious,' with its Ernest Shepard illustrations.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My kind publishers, Toby Mundy and Margaret Stead of Atlantic Books, have commissioned me to write the life of Queen Victoria.
We may smile at these matters, but they are melancholy illustrations.
I love the Shakespeare history plays; I love the struggle for the crown as a plot.
When I was a playwright earlier in my career - my senior project in high school was my first produced play - I used to put on the title page: 'A tragedy with laughs.'
Sir Kenneth MacMillan's version of 'Romeo and Juliet' is my favorite full-length ballet, Sergei Prokofiev's breathtaking score a favorite composition of music. As a student of martial arts, I loved drawing my sword in defense of my Capulet kin.
I have admired David Bromley's work for years. He possesses such a wild and vivid imagination and really sees the beauty in everything.
I love big, bold, truthful theater - the tradition of Victorian theater.
I share something in common with Norman Rockwell and, for that matter, with Walt Disney, in that I really like to make people happy.
'At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom' by Amy Hempel showed me the lean quality of prose.
Yes, I'm happy with Alan Ball's production of my novels.