Drawing: Eleanor Catton

Posted on July 11, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of author Eleanor Catton

It’s always nice to catch up with a fellow kiwi in London, and in this case a very distinguished New Zealander, Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton. Born in Canada, while her father completed his doctorate at the University of Western Ontario, she grew up in Christchurch on east coast of NZ’s South Island. Eleanor’s second novel, THE LUMINARIES won the Man Booker Prize in 2013.

At the age of 28, she was the youngest recipient of the prestigious literary award. It was also the longest book to win, with 832 pages. The chair of the judging panel, Robert Macfarlane said, “It’s a dazzling work. It’s a luminous work. It is vast without being sprawling.”

Set in 1866, THE LUMINARIES follows Walter Moody, a prospector who heads to Hokitika on the opposite coast to Christchurch to make his fortune in the goldfields, but stumbles on a meeting of twelve local men and is drawn into a complex mystery that is covering up a series of unsolved crimes. Each of the twelve men are associated with the twelve signs of the zodiac, astrological principles, the sun and the moon – ‘the luminaries’ in the title. Each of the novel’s twelve parts decreases in length to mimic the waning of the moon. As Eleanor herself said, “It’s a kind of weird sci-fi fantasy thing.”

Eleanor was in London over the weekend speaking at the ‘Series Man Booker 50′ as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Prize. I met her at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Artists’ Entrance on Saturday, where we ‘conversed in kiwi’ as she signed my sketch.

Drawing: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of author Sir Kazuo Ishiguro

Japanese-born British author and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro moved to the UK with his family in 1960, when he was five years old. Since then he has become one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction writers in the English-speaking world.

Among his many accolades are four Booker Prize nominations, winning in 1989 with THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, written in first person, recounting the butler Stevens’ professional and personal relationship with a former colleague, the housekeeper Miss Kenton. The 1993 film version starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson was nominated for eight Academy Awards. His 2005 novel NEVER LET ME GO was also shortlisted for the Booker, with TIME magazine citing it as the Best Novel of the Year and was also adapted into a successful film in 2010.

Last year the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, with the citation, as a writer “who, in novels of great emotional force has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” This year he was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Sir Kazuo signed my sketch at the Artists Entrance to the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday as he arrived to take part in the ‘Series Man Booker 50’, celebrating half a century of the prestigious literary prize.

Drawing: Michael Ondaatje

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of author Michael Ondaatje

Sri-Lanka-born Canadian author Michael Ondaatje’s 1992 Booker Prize winning novel THE ENGLISH PATIENT was awarded the special, one-off Golden Man Booker award last night, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the prestigious literary accolade. All 52 previous winners were eligible, with the judges shortlisting five – one for each decade – IN A FREE STATE (1971) by V.S.Naipaul, MOON TIGER (1987) by Penelope Lively, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, WOLF HALL (2009) by Hilary Mantel and LINCOLN IN THE BARDO (2017) by George Sanders. The prize has been shared on two occasions, one being in 1992 when THE ENGLISH PATIENT and Barry Unsworth’s SACRED HUNGER were chosen as joint winners. The final Golden Prize was selected by public poll.

THE ENGLISH PATIENT centres around the eponymous ‘English patient’, Count Laszlo de Almasy, burned and disfigured in a plane crash during the North Africa Campaign of WWII, who tells his story in flashbacks, involving a romantic affair, while being attended by Hana, a young Canadian nurse. He is believed to be English, but main his identity is revealed, little by little culminating in the great irony of the novel, he’s not English, but Hungarian… an “international bastard” who has spent most of his adult life wandering the desert. The 1996 film adaption featuring Ralph Fiennes as Almasy won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for the late Anthony Minghella.

Michael signed my sketch at the Royal Festival Hall when he arrived yesterday afternoon as part of the ‘Man Booker 50’ series of lectures, workshops and discussions over the weekend, prior to the announcement of the Golden Man Booker Prize last night.

Drawing: Stephanie Corley, Quirijn de Lang and Zoe Rainey in Kiss Me Kate

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Stephanie Corley, Quirijn deLang and Zoe Rainey in Kiss Me Kate at the London Coliseum

Opera North’s award-winning production of Cole Porter’s Broadway comedy classic KISS ME KATE has just completed it’s very brief one-week run at the London Coliseum. The West End debut was also at the same venue, opening on March 8 1951, after premiering at the New Century Theatre on Broadway two years earlier, winning 5 Tony Awards.

This farcical battle of the sexes is set both on and off-stage during the production of a musical version of Shakespeare’s THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, revolving around the tempestuous love lives of actor-manager Fred Graham and his leading lady and ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. Add to the mix, Fred’s current paramour Lois Lane, her gambler boyfriend Bill and a couple of pursuing gangsters and you have the perfect set-up for ‘showbiz shannagians’.

After an initial run at the Theatre Grand Leeds in May, this production transferred to London and is now at the Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre. This ‘jubilant marriage of Porter and the Bard’ had the critics buzzing. The best comment was in the Guardian’s five-star review – “So hot, it’s practically a fire risk”.

Acclaimed opera singers Stephanie Corley and Quirijn de Lang play the lead roles-Lilli/Kate and Fred/Petruchio respectively. West End star Zoe Rainey is Lois/Bianca. I left this montage sketch at the stage door and it came back yesterday, signed and dedicated.

Drawing: Jemma Redgrave in The Great Game: Afghanistan

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Jemma Redgrave in The Great Game: Afghanistan at the Tricycle Theatre in London and Public Theater in New York

THE GREAT GAME: AFGHANISTAN premiered at London’s Tricycle Theatre in April 2009, directed by Nicolas Kent and Indhu Rubasingham and featured English actress Jemma Redgrave, before transplanting to New York’s Public Theater the following year.

It’s a chronological history of foreign involvement in Afghanistan since 1842. Described as a ‘play of epic proportions’… it’s actually 12 playlets, divided into three sets of four, that required seven hours of on-stage acting. With intermissions it turned into a 12 hour theatrical marathon for cast and audience.

Jemma, a fourth generation actress from of the Redgrave dynasty, appeared in four of the 12. Her early stage career included the role of Irina in the 1990 revival of Anton Chekhov’s THE THREE SISTERS alongside aunts, Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave – the first and only time they have appeared in a theatre production together.

Jemma is also a familiar face on the small screen, playing Eve Granger in COLD BLOOD and Major Bernice Wolfe on the BBC medical drama HOLBY CITY, among many more. She signed my sketch at the Old Vic last month while she was appearing in MOOD MUSIC.

Drawing: Serena Williams

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of tennis player Serena Williams

Wimbledon continues-Day 2. Seven-time singles Champion Serena Williams returned yesterday to SW19 after missing last year, waiting the arrival of her daughter Alexis Olympia in September, although she did win the Australian Open while two months pregnant. Fun fact: hence her daughter’s initials AO. It was a successful first day back in ‘the office’, beating Holland’s Arantxa Rus in straight sets. Serena’s first Grand Slam back after her hiatus was the French Open last month, where she had to retire before her fourth round match with Maria Sharapova due to an injury sustained while playing doubles with sister Venus.

Many consider her to be the best player in the history of the sport, but agree it is difficult to compare from different eras. Four names are constantly in the mix for the women’s debate – Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena. Her record speaks for itself. The WTA have ranked her Number 1 on eight occasions between 2002-2017. Serena’s 23 singles Grand Slam titles is the most by a player in the Open Era, second behind Margaret Court (24). She is the most recent player to have twice held all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously in 2002-3 and 2014-15, the third person to do this after Rod Laver and Steffi Graf. In addition, she has won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles with sister Venus and two mixed doubles, along with four Olympic gold medals and winning the Laureus Sportswomen of the Year Award four times.

Serena walked the purple carpet at the WTA TENNIS ON THE THAMES pre-Wimbledon event, honouring women who have shaped the world with their achievements both on and off the court at London’s iconic OXO tower last Thursday where she signed my sketch.

Drawing: Martina Navratilova

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of tennis player Martina Navratilova

Wimbledon starts today. What better way to herald in the greatest tennis event on the planet than acknowledging, what many consider to be the world’s best ever female player, the Czechoslovakian-born, Martina Navratilova. In 2005 TENNIS magazine selected her as the greatest player between 1965-2005, but it’s hard to find anyone better from any era.

Her amazing record stands alone and too numerous to list here, other than a not-so-brief highlights summary. She held the Number 1 spot for 332 weeks in singles and a record 237 weeks in doubles, making her the only player in history to hold the top spots in singles and doubles for over 200 weeks. Martina has won 18 Grand Slam singles, 31 doubles (another record) and 10 mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. This includes a record 9 Wimbledon titles, with a run of six consecutive victories from 1982-87. She is one of only three players to have achieved a ‘Career Grand Slam’ in singles, doubles and mixed doubles-known as the Grand Slam boxed set’, a distinction she holds with Margaret Court and Doris Hart. Martina’s record is widely regarded as the best performance ever of any professional player-male or female at a major event.

I have been keen to get a signed Martina sketch for a number of years. She is a permanent fixture during The Championships at SW19 these days, as a commentator and competitor in the Invitational Doubles, but has remained elusive, until yesterday, when I happened to be hanging around Gate 13, as one does on the day before ‘hit-off’ and she happened to walk out and down the road with a purposeful stride, followed by a handful of devotees in hot (30 degree heat) pursuit. Mission accomplished.