Last night Ally W very kindly invited me to join her book club on an outing to Eastwood Theatre to watch a live streamed documentary about Canadian author Margaret Atwood. This documentary was being simultaneously screened across the globe to mark the release of her new book “The Testaments” which is a sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale”, recently popularised again by a television series. I have long admired her work and I read “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Edible Woman” among others, many many years ago. So I was keen to go along and Ally’s friends all made me feel very welcome.
We all met at Ally’s house where she made us a delicious supper before the short (and delightfully secret, through a locked gate) stroll to the theatre. The documentary did not disappoint. An extended interview with Margaret Atwood was interspersed with readings from her new book by top luvvies Ann Dowd, Sally Hawkins, and Lily James. Margaret Atwood was a fascinating speaker and I would now really like to read the book. I have to admit that when I first heard that there was to be a sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale”, I rather cynically surmised that after the success of the television series it had seemed like a good opportunity to add to Atwood’s pension pot. However, after hearing her speak about it I felt myself drawn back in to the dystopian world of Gilead.
A rather sad postscript is that I read today that Margaret Atwood’s long time partner (since 1973) Graeme Gibson, died yesterday in London while promoting the new book with her. He was eighty-five and had been suffering from early stages of dementia so the family mentioned that although very sad they were glad that he died during a happy time before his condition deteriorated further.
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