I was browsing for I don't know what, when I came across this lovely painting of an old-fashioned bookshop in London. "Yes!" I thought, "84 Charing Cross Road!" but it wasn't, or rather, "Yes, it is Charing Cross Road, but not Number 84", which was the setting for that true story of a transatlantic correspondence about used books that developed into a close friendship.
Of course, we all love the movie adaptation of Helene Hanff's epistolary memoir "84, Charing Cross Road", which starred Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench as Frank’s wife; some of us may even have read Helene's book; some may even have read everything Helene requested from poor Frank - well, almost everything except perhaps the Latin Vulgate Bible - but who has seen this rare Hugh Whitemore adaptation which I discovered just a few clicks away? How could I have missed it?
This little-known version of Helene Hanff's memoir feels more like an audiobook with visuals, even including archival footage of such events as JFK's assassination played over by the Beatles with "Love Me Do". Back then, Charing Cross Road was top to tail full of second-hand book-shops who provided food for thought where now they sell junk food.
Then ...
... and now
All that's left of Marks & Co at 84, Charing Cross Road is this plaque:
I usually read the book before I watch its movie adaptation, but in the case of "84, Charing Cross Road" - inexplicably named "Zwischen den Zeilen" in its dubbed German version - I discovered the 1987 Anne Bancroft/Anthony Hopkins movie long before I read the book but still too late to have paid homage to the bookshop's location when I used to visit my employer's London office in Fetter Lane in the early 1980s.
I think I read the book one more time. At no more than a hundred pages, it's no "War and Peace" but just the right length for a pleasant read between lunch and an afternoon nap on the sunlit verandah.
Of course, there's always the option of listening to the audiobook and dropping off to sleep well before the afternoon nap. Thanks, YouTube!
