Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Screenwriter's Tale

Several people have pointed out, quite correctly, that this blog has been replete with hearsay and reportage and relatively bereft of original contributions and personal testimony. As was stated clearly from the outset, my mission was to bring together the information already in the public domain. Today all that changes. I am delighted to report the most original and personal contribution since this blog began. Dear readers, let me introduce you to Andy Conway.

The Screenwriter's Tale

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Six hundred and fifty seven years ago, an Italian humanist's tales of people fleeing Florence to escape the Bubonic Plague inspired one of the greatest story-tellers of the Middle Ages to pen his own set of allegorical tales. Just as the poetic words of Giovanni Boccaccio inspired Geoffrey Chaucer in those dark days, so the sensuous tones of Chantal Boccaccio have inspired scriptwriter Andy Conway more than half a millennium later, with the C14th threat of Black Death now replaced by a very different public nuisance. Step aside, Giotto, Buffalmacco and Saladin. Close The Decameron and open up The Canterbury Tales. It's time for The Screenwriter's Tale!

Based in Birmingham (that's Birmingham England, not Alabama), Andy Conway is an up-and-coming British screenwriter with a feature film and two TV drama series currently in development. He is also a fiction writer, magazine contributor and university lecturer in scriptwriting and creative writing. But it's not his creative skills to which I seek to draw your attention. It's his first-hand testimony about Yolande Beckles. As Andy says: "I'm actually the man who closed down her former company, Global Graduates. Spare the applause and prepare yourself for a tale of femme fatale treachery and double crossing that would make Raymond Chandler moist."

What follows is jaw-dropping. To read Andy's story of Yolande and the city of Birmingham, "where you'll find most of the skeletons in Miss Beckles' closet", click on the picture of his website above. You'll be transported to a surreal world that even the most creative writer couldn't invent. Enjoy.

2 comments:

  1. I can see neither you or Andy went to school in Hackney like me. I had to look up the Decameron to get the joke.

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  2. Amazing stuff. Is there more to come? What's happening now and why has nobody come forward about that trip to Trinidad? This is better than reading Le Carre.

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