Today–30th June 2019–Winston Graham would have been 111!
I’m re-reading the Poldark saga books at the moment and being reminded of why this story still resonates.
WBGH Boston–home of Masterpiece, showcase for the majority of British TV drama in the States–is producing a series of podcasts to run with the showing of the fifth and final series of Poldark, stateside.
Mining Poldark is an epic undertaking–40 half-hour segments. I’m co-hosting with Barrett Brountas.
It involves watching each episode–old and new– and re-reading the original books.
Barrett and I then spend a half-hour dissecting each episode–agreeing and disagreeing in an agreeable fashion.
The team: Susanne Simpson (Exec Producer), me, Barrett (co-host), Nick Andersen (Producer)
We are nearly half-way through–and it’s a pleasure!
His wonderful writing lives on and is again a source of joy as well as–in this case–employment!
He wrote Ross Poldark, the first in the saga, in 1945 when he was 37 and bringing up a family of his own with his beloved wife–Jean at their home in Cornwall.
He finished the twelfth and last book, Bella Poldark, in 2002 at the age of 92!
This last tells the story of Ross and Demelza’s youngest child who becomes an actress–and with whom I’m sure Winston fell in love, as he’d done with Demelza–11 books earlier!
There’s as much PASSION in the last of the saga as there is in Ross Poldark.
He felt a loyalty to his characters–and this he passed on to his readers.
He was a supremely talented story teller.
Bonne Anniversaire, Winston!
Robin Ellis 