Celebrating the Human Spirit: Sadness and Joy at the start of 2024 by Griselda Heppel

I had in mind to write something cheerful for the first day of 2024 because, heaven knows, there’s so much horror in the world right now and some counterbalance is desperately needed – and I will, bear with me – but some sad news arriving just before Christmas must take precedence. 

Clare Weiner, friend and fellow Authors Electric blogger, died suddenly and unexpectedly on 7th December. Hard to believe that the author of a bubbly blogpost on the joys of the Art Shop in Oxford on 22 November could be gone, just like that, less than 3 weeks later. 

Farewell Fifteen by Mari Howard

Clare was one of those people whose creativity expressed itself in more ways than one. Writing as Mari Howard, she was about to launch Farewell Fifteen, book 3 in her Mullins family saga that pits scientific curiosity against traditional religious faith. She was also a poet, a painter and a photographer whose nature shots revealed a closely observing eye and strong sense of design.

I first got to know Clare through St Margaret’s Church in Oxford when my children were young, during a glorious heyday when a wealth of musical and literary congregation members gathered together to write and perform St Margaret’s very own cycle of Six Mystery Plays. 

Clare was assigned to write the first two, Creation and The Fall, and produced two delightful interpretations of these great stories, in which she skilfully interlaced the Serious Bits (small) with her own quirky humour (much more important). I particularly relished Eve taking on God – something about entrapment not being fair – probably because I was allowed to do the arguing. Hmm, nothing’s changed there.

Run along now, no arguing. Adam and Eve and the Fall by Michelangelo.

That was many years ago. In the meantime our children have grown up and we’ve both moved on, but kept in touch through our writing, and of course, through Authors Electric. She is a sad loss to AE and to all her friends but far more to her family. I was glad to hear from Clare’s husband that her death, from a heart attack, was instant; she will not have known a thing. The best way, if it has to be. 

A celebration of the human spirit: The Choir of Man
at the Arts Theatre, London

Which brings me back to what I’d planned to write about before the shock of Clare’s loss: a musical in London's West End I’ve been to now 4 times, which never fails to lift the spirits. Not because it’s a glitzy, thumping, special-effects-laden spectacular – it isn’t – but because it’s a charming, low-key, beautifully choreographed and sung, wittily-written examination of human beings; what makes us tick, our need and support of each other, our private sorrows as well as things we have to celebrate.

Cast members of The Choir of Man  (of which, cough, my son is one) bring their own stories to the show, with a strong emphasis on family relationships, in between the most fabulous feats of dancing, gymnastics, tap-dancing, close-harmony singing, playing a multitude of different instruments and generally exuding a joyous ebullience. The lack of one particular narrative, and the unfashionably all-male cast, are probably the reasons why the show received rather sniffy reviews from mainstream theatre critics… but what do they know?

The Choir of Man has been running a good 18 months now at the Arts Theatre, Leicester Square, and still sells out every night. For many in the audience, this is their 4th, 8th, 10th, umpteenth visit (reasonably priced tickets help – other West End theatres, take note). There are touring shows in other parts of the world, including the USA and Australia. 

The Choir of Man: great for cheering you up.

Often lacklustre reviews in the posh papers are enough to crush a show. But not this one. Who needs theatre critics when you have Word of Mouth? People of all ages, from pensioners down to children, male and female, all love it, and they tell their friends. The best, most reliable publicity there is. And it's free. 

So if you need cheering up as 2024 gets into its stride, you could do worse than spend 90 minutes at the Choir of Man. Whether Clare would have enjoyed it or not, I don’t know; but as a celebration of the human spirit, and with its message of love and hope, I think she’d have approved.

OUT NOW

The Fall of a Sparrow by Griselda Heppel

WINNER of a Wishing Shelf Award 

by the author of Ante's Inferno  

WINNER of the People's Book Prize

www.griseldaheppel.com 

https://griseldaheppel.wordpress.com