Much to my astonishment, ‘Tulip Fever’ is apparently coming to cinemas on 7 December. This whole twenty-year-old saga (see previous postings) might be coming to an end at last. It has been both bizarre and gruelling, to say the least, but now you might actually be able to see the film, which really is rather great, and with the most amazing cast – Judi Dench, Alicia Vikander, Cara Delevigne, Tom Hollander, Christoph Walz and even me, playing my favourite part, an old crone drinking beer and smoking a clay pipe. So do go, if it comes to a cinema near you. The ghastly Weinstein scandal nearly scuppered it, but it’s actually very beautiful, and takes us right into 17th century Amsterdam, as if we’re walking into a Vermeer painting.
It’s been …
Deborah Moggach
Both my parents were writers – my father wrote naval history, biographies and children’s books; my mother wrote and illustrated children’s books. I had three sisters, and we grew up to the sound of typewriters tapping in the veranda, where our parents sat side by side, working. I wasn’t a particularly writerly child, however. I preferred playing with cars and animals. I didn’t like girly things and my hero was William Brown.