Today I have to keep this rather short because I have to move on to other work. Anyways, I am going to talk about Anna and the King of Siam, a book that I would argue (along with Stratford Gold) is one of the less common titles appearing on my list. If you would like to learn more, here is the link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Anna-King-Siam-Margaret-Landon/dp/0060954884
As a young adult I had a long standing fascination with the story of Anna Leonowens and the time she spent in Siam (modern day Thailand) tutoring the King's children. I believe that my interest began after watching the 1999 movie Anna and the King starring Jodie Foster and Chow-Yun-Fat. Which, is a beautiful but is an overly romanticized and glamourized retelling of the story-as most hollywood productions seem to be.
It wasn't until four years later in 2003 that I was able to vastly improve my knowledge on this subject viewing the Rodgers and Hammerstein's production of The King and I both on film and in person at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. But honestly, I didn't love The King and I. As much as I love The Stratford Festival and Lucy Peacock (who starred in Stratford's production) I am just not the biggest fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein-I mean I love The Sound of Music and Carousel-but they aren't two of my favourites and I don't know-maybe I will elaborate on my favourite lyricists and composers later but anyways, I just wasn't totally enraptured by this musical. However, what I did fall in love with was the book Anna and the King of Siam, which was bought in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's gift shop.
And as a side note, one other reason that I love the Stratford Festival so much is because, not only have many of my favourite theatrical productions been performed there, but I have also acquired many of my favourite books from their bookstore or in the town of Stratford. Including: Anna and the King of Siam, Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, Stratford Gold, Cyrano de Bergerac and Peter Pan. Because as much as I love Shakespeare, and I truly do, it annoys me to no end that most libraries and bookstores have theatre sections (if they even have theatre sections at all) that are completely and only filled with the works of Shakespeare. And yes, Shakespeare is unbelievably great and easily arguably the best playwright of all time- but really there is so much out there-and I have found that The Stratford Festival is really the only place out there that has presented those options to me. Now, it is true that anything can be found online these days, but without Stratford I would never have known to search for books like Pygmalion, Anna and the King or Cyrano.
But getting back on track, and summing up. Anna and the King of Siam is a wonderful book-it was one of those books that succeeded in fully transporting me to another place while reading, and I find that few books are able to fully and completely do this. There is more I could say, but I will leave it to you to check it out for yourself.
As a young adult I had a long standing fascination with the story of Anna Leonowens and the time she spent in Siam (modern day Thailand) tutoring the King's children. I believe that my interest began after watching the 1999 movie Anna and the King starring Jodie Foster and Chow-Yun-Fat. Which, is a beautiful but is an overly romanticized and glamourized retelling of the story-as most hollywood productions seem to be.
It wasn't until four years later in 2003 that I was able to vastly improve my knowledge on this subject viewing the Rodgers and Hammerstein's production of The King and I both on film and in person at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. But honestly, I didn't love The King and I. As much as I love The Stratford Festival and Lucy Peacock (who starred in Stratford's production) I am just not the biggest fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein-I mean I love The Sound of Music and Carousel-but they aren't two of my favourites and I don't know-maybe I will elaborate on my favourite lyricists and composers later but anyways, I just wasn't totally enraptured by this musical. However, what I did fall in love with was the book Anna and the King of Siam, which was bought in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's gift shop.
And as a side note, one other reason that I love the Stratford Festival so much is because, not only have many of my favourite theatrical productions been performed there, but I have also acquired many of my favourite books from their bookstore or in the town of Stratford. Including: Anna and the King of Siam, Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, Stratford Gold, Cyrano de Bergerac and Peter Pan. Because as much as I love Shakespeare, and I truly do, it annoys me to no end that most libraries and bookstores have theatre sections (if they even have theatre sections at all) that are completely and only filled with the works of Shakespeare. And yes, Shakespeare is unbelievably great and easily arguably the best playwright of all time- but really there is so much out there-and I have found that The Stratford Festival is really the only place out there that has presented those options to me. Now, it is true that anything can be found online these days, but without Stratford I would never have known to search for books like Pygmalion, Anna and the King or Cyrano.
But getting back on track, and summing up. Anna and the King of Siam is a wonderful book-it was one of those books that succeeded in fully transporting me to another place while reading, and I find that few books are able to fully and completely do this. There is more I could say, but I will leave it to you to check it out for yourself.
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