Marilyn and I, really did enjoy Dunstable’s Grove Theatre offering of The Ghost and Mrs Muir on Saturday. Amongst the cast was Emmerdale’s Anna Brecon, Brookside’s Marcus Hutton, George Telfer as the crusty sea captain, with Julia Binns and Ben Roddy. The Talking Scarlet and Pomegranate production was a real treat that kept very much to R A Dicks original novel and was adapted for the stage and is tour directed by Patric Kearns.
In 1945 Josephine Leslie under the name of R.A. Dick published her wonderful novel entitled “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir“… Determined to make a life for herself and her daughter, Lucy Muir, a young widow moves into Gull Cottage on a wild English coast. The cottage is haunted by its former owner, a crusty sea captain. The captain tries unsuccessfully to frighten off Lucy Muir in order to keep the cottage for retired seamen, but they fall in love with each other, and when Lucy is short of money, the Captain helps her write a book based on his sea adventures which becomes very popular. The book attracts the amorous attentions of a ‘perfumed parlour snake’ and Lucy Muir must then choose between the living and the dead…
Josephine Leslie’s novel was turned into a highly successful movie in 1947 by 20th Century Fox, and featured Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in a superbly moving screenplay.
The Loxwood Barge in the Village of Loxwood, England… Not far from Enid Stamp Taylor’s sleeping place in Alfold, on the Surrey and Sussex border, is the quaint English village of Loxwood. Here at Loxwood are enjoyable summer barge trips along the canals, and at Yuletide, mulled wine, mince pies and traditional English carols to be savoured from the local public house.
