THE HILARIOUS MEMOIR ‘MADAME DEPARDIEU & THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS’ WAS PUBLISHED EARLIER THIS SUMMER, AND SENT CLIVE JAMES, FAY WELDON, WILL SELF AND JULIE BURCHILL SCRAMBLING FOR SUPERLATIVES. ANTONIA QUIRKE DECIDED TO TAKE IT ON THE ROAD.
The book at the centre of this quirky evening is a razor sharp and achingly funny memoir of the men and movies that shaped one woman’s life. Antonia Quirke—film-critic and actor-obsessive—lives out the unscripted chaos of her life, unfolding the hapless story of her hunt for the right man, an unfortunate soul in that he constantly finds himself in competition with Gerard or Tom or Mel or any of the beautiful strangers.
Using as a backdrop a cinema screen full of clips of men at work—Buster Keaton to River Phoenix, Johnny Depp to Gregory Peck—the author will read from her memoir to illustrate just why The Sunday Times described her as the dizzyingly funny real-life incarnation of Mia Farrow in the Purple Rose of Cairo’.
Quirke’s is a fresh and utterly engaging voice, and she knows a lot about two things: love and the movies.