84 Charing Cross Road

[StepAwayFromCake]

Re-reading for the millionth time, after a gap of about 10y. Still love it. Still moves me. Still choke up when I read the letter telling of his death. Still feel HH's thrill as she explores London - my city.

I've never dared to watch the film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. How could it possibly match up to my visualisation? But every time I wonder...shall I...should I try it...maybe it will add to my pleasure?

I can totally see Anne Bancroft as Helene Hanff, but Anthony Hopkins isn't 'my' Frank Doel. OTOH, AH is a good actor. And how can you ruin a story where virtually nothing happens?

What do you think? Should I watch the film? How true is it to the book?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

The book is gorgeous but I hated the film. Hopkins is okay but I couldn't stand Anne B.

[StepAwayFromCake]

Interesting that you see them the other way around to me.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

She had a very scary smile - as if wearing false teeth made of picket fences.

[StepAwayFromCake]

Well, she does say in the book that she can't come to England because all her money is going on capping all her teeth!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Very true! The film is usually only about a fiver on Amazon, so maybe worth a shot? For me though, it's a long, long way from the loveliness of the book though.

[ozymandiusking]

I haven't read the book, Certainly one to go on my list!
But, I love the film. Please be brave and give it a try.

[Floggingmolly]

Book is definitely better.

[BestIsWest]

I remember AB appearing on Wogan to publicise 84 CCR. He always said it was his worst ever interview. Never watched the film though and she doesn't fit my image of Helene Hanff either.

Book is lovely.

[HemiDemiSemiquaver]

I love the book.

i can't remember if I've seen the film, but I have seen a couple of versions of the play. The first version in particular made such an obvious deal out of the love affair between them that it was really disappointing. It's the subtlety of it being an intense friendship that really was a kind of love, in the book, that was so beautiful. Somehow it cheapened it to make it so blatant in the play.

[southeastdweller]

Did you watch it? I love both the book and the film.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Helene Hanff wrote other books too - including one about visiting London. There's Q's Legacy, Underfoot in Showbusiness and Apple of my Eye.

[StepAwayFromCake]

Thanks Staying - I've just ordered Q's Legacy

What triggered me to re-read 84CCR was coming across a volume of Q in a charity shop! I opened it at random, purely because of HH, and was hooked.

My copy of 84CCR includes The Duchess of Bloomsbury, so I've never read one without the other. They so obviously complement each other that I think one would be incomplete without the other.

No, I haven't watched the film. TBH their voices are so clear in my head that I don't think I ever will. Besides, it wasn't IMO a love affair. (Not with each other, at least. A shared passion, perhaps.) It was an intense and trusting friendship, and I would hate to see that cheapened.

[HemiDemiSemiquaver]

yes my 84CCR also includes Duchess of Bloomsbury and in my mind too, they are a single book.
Trusted and intense friendship, a kind of non-romantic love in my mind, and it disappointed me to make it seem more like a love affair.

i will have to look up her other books - wasn't aware of them.

[impostersyndrome]

I also reread 84 CCR over and over again. What gets me every time is the Christmas box she sends over. Such generosity when she had so little money.

I've got all her books. There's one I think called letters from New York, which were pieces she did for Woman's Hour, which were so evocative of the city, that the first time I visited, I felt I had already been there.

And yes, my edition also has the sequel bound into it.

And yes, the film is not a patch on the book, but it still made me cry!

[Chottie]

I love HH's books too.

Particularly Q's Legacy. Q had such a sad life, he lost his beloved son in the war.....

[Str4ngedaysindeed]

I love the book and film - I also saw a stage production many years ago which was gorgeous too. And the Q books are so lovely!

[Str4ngedaysindeed]

Her writing is just so sort of ordinary and conversational if that makes sense. You feel like you're having a chat with her

[NorthernLurker]

I love the book and the film. Different but both good.
I also have letters from New York - it's fabulous.

[MsAmerica]

The movie is disappointing and will not add to your pleasure in terms of your love of the book - but, still, there is a pleasure in just seeing Bancroft and Hopkins, and I'm always happy when anyone makes a movie that showcases reading.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Inspired by this thread, I have gone and bought a copy of 84 (mine had gone missing), and am devouring it.

I'd forgotten that she met Joyce Grenfell, whilst she was in London - Joyce is one of my heroines.

[impostersyndrome]

How lovely! I think this is one that bears rereading at least once a year. It reminds me also of this quirky cookbook I inherited from my American mother, <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.com/Recipes-Starving-Actors-Victor-Izay/dp/B000I8FAI6?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">"for starving actors", full of recipes involving 'take one can of cream of mushroom soup, pour over a veal cutlet, warm and serve'; I'm sure written for the sort of one-ring kitchenette that people like Helene Hanff had in her apartment.

[HemiDemiSemiquaver]

I was never sure whether her name sounded just like ordinary 'Helen', or whether it was some variation on that - and I can't remember how it was it the stage production. In my head I always thought it more with the emphasis on the second syllable "hel - lenne' or even 'hel - lane' but that's because as a teenager, it seemed much more exotic that way!

[RustyBear]

I've never seen the film, but it was the 1975 Play for Today with Anne Jackson as Helene and Frank Finlay as Frank Doel that led me to read the book. Does anyone else remember it? Oddly, until I looked it up on IMDb, I was convinced it was Elaine Stritch who played Helene.

[impostersyndrome]

HemiDemiSemiquaver, assuming the BBC (and Roy Plomley) never get pronunciation wrong, it's pronounced 'Hell-lane' according to this recording of Desert Island Discs: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0144n7w

[BringMeTea]

Wonderful book and film. Highly recommended to anyone who has not had the pleasure.