Алан Беннетт – лучшие книги

Если бы собаки не залаяли, как бешеные, на незнакомый фургон у дверей дворцовой кухни, королева никогда не узнала бы о еженедельных визитах Вестминстерской передвижной библиотеки. Но, поднявшись по ступенькам фургона, чтобы извиниться за поднятый собаками шум, она, в конце концов, выбрала роман полузабытой писательницы Айви Комптон-Бернетт. Чтение не влекло…

Квартиру респектабельной супружеской четы обворовывают подчистую, и внезапно под ногами людей, которые казались счастливыми и довольными, словно разверзается бездна – когда супруги лишились привычного комфорта, вещи, а вместе с ними и вся жизнь, оказываются призрачным фасадом, за которым прячутся скука и пустота. И чудесный возврат украденного уже не может вернуть людям прежней уверенности, что все в порядке.

«Вторая молодость миссис Доналдсон» - повесть одного из самых известных современных английских сатириков Алана Беннетта (1934). Вдова 55-ти лет и для заработка, и для заполнения душевной пустоты устраивается на работу в труппу ложных больных, на которых студенты-медики овладевают азами профессии. Попутно она сдает пустующую комнату, впрочем, за своеобразную и…

An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks he's a fool.

In Alan Bennett's new play, staff room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it; about education and its purpose.

The History Boys premiered at the National in May 2004.

This is a collection of diaries, recollections and book reviews - including several old favourites, such as "The Lady in the Ban" and various "LRB" diaries - which work as a whole to create a portrait of the writer.

A critically acclaimed double bill of Alan Bennett plays, adapted for BBC Radio. An Englishman Abroad - It is 1958, and in a squalid flat in Moscow, double-agent Guy Burgess is hiding from the world. When he is visited by actress Coral Browne, he is overjoyed to see someone from his former life in England. Starved for information, Burgess interrogates her about English society gossip. A Question of Attribution - In 1956, Sir Anthony Blunt - pillar of the Establishment and respected Knight of the Realm - is working as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Perfectly at home in the corridors of Buckingham Palace, he frequently encounters Her Majesty as he works on her paintings, and has a special fondness for one particular Titian. However, there is one small problem: the painting, like Blunt himself, is a fake. Is the Queen aware that her enigmatic servant might also be other than he seems? Poignant and moving, these two brand new adaptations feature Simon Callow, Brigit Forsyth, Edward Petherbridge and Prunella Scales.

This is a collection of Alan Bennett's prose. The title piece is a poignant family memoir with an account of the marriage of his parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts and the uncovering of a long-held family secret. Also included are essays, reviews, lectures and reminiscences. "Untold Stories" is Alan Bennett's first collection of prose since "Writing Home" and takes in all his major writings over the last ten years. The title piece is a poignant family memoir with an account of the marriage of his parents, the lives and deaths of his aunts and the uncovering of a long-held family secret. Also included are his much celebrated diaries for the years 1996 to 2004, as well as essays, reviews, lectures and reminiscences ranging from childhood trips to the local cinema and a tour around Leeds Art Gallery to reflections on writing, honours and his Westminster Abbey eulogy for Thora Hird. At times heartrending and at others extremely funny, "Untold Stories" is a matchless and unforgettable anthology.