Steve Crook

I take great pleasure in announcing that after many difficulties, there will be a new edition of A Canterbury Tale - Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie available from August 1st, 2006.

See the
PaPAS site for details and how to order a copy.



Three strangers - a Women's Land Army girl, an American GI and a British soldier - meet for the first time in the wartime blackout at a country railway station near Canterbury.


Moments later the girl becomes the latest victim of Chillingbourne's 'glueman' who flees into the shadows.


From this sinister opening episode to its climactic military parade and service in Canterbury Cathedral, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's haunting and heartfelt movie A Canterbury Tale unfolds as a fascinating story of three people whose lives are changed by the blessings they receive when, after an eventful weekend in the East Kent countryside, they arrive in Canterbury on the day a local regiment embarks for the Second Front.


A Canterbury Tale - Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie by Paul Tritton describes, episode by episode, how the film was made and features:

• More than 400 pictures, including original publicity stills
• Foreword by the film's stars, Sheila Sim (Lady Attenborough) and John Sweet
• Details of the film's locations in and around Canterbury 'then' and 'now'
• Reminiscences of members of the film's crew, cast, extras, and eye-witnesses who watched the film being made
• The amazing 'Canterbury Cathedral' set built at Denham Film Studios
• The film's world premiere in Canterbury in 1944 and its restoration and revival 30 years later
• Many details of director and producer Michael Powell's early life in Bekesbourne and Canterbury
• Recent events that have celebrated Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's achievements and introduced A Canterbury Tale to a new generation of film enthusiasts

This book was first published in August 2000. This edition, available from August 1st, 2006, contains a wealth of additional material, including many full-colour photographs and a review of events that have taken place in and around Canterbury since 2000 to celebrate and commemorate A Canterbury Tale.

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Elliot J Huntley

Steve,

Great news on the re-issue of your book and I will certainly look forward to buying a copy.

Elliot

Steve Crook

It is great news, but I'm not the author. That honour goes to Paul Tritton. He did all the work of tracking down all the surviving cast members, even the extras, or the relatives of a lot that are no longer with us. He also found most of the locations and he's the one that started the annual ACT location walk.

Steve

MrDrakesDuck

With your vast P&P knowledge Have you considered writing a book?

"I thought I had to shoot Germans, not chew 'em"

David Brent

Seems a great book Steve and I was all set to order my copy but the charges do seem a little high. With the listed high postal charge to areas outside the UK included, the total purchase price for me would be 35 quid.
With the current poor conversion rate for the Australian dollar against sterling it would cost me somewhere near $90. Too rich for me. Pity.
Maybe a used copy will eventually reach ebay.

Dave.

penfold

Not if the first edition sales were anything to go by....I never saw one turn up on ebay or abebooks, though one may now if they hear about the reissue and want to capitalise on its rarity....Capitalists!!....It may seem a bit steep, but it is a unique book, not just on ACT but on any British film, I can't think of another that goes into such detail on the production, location, and peoples' memories of filming...perhaps there is a book on a cult film like Wicker Man, but certainly nothing else like this about a bona fide classic from this era. I would really think about eschewing a planned DVD purchase and scraping a few dollars together for the book...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Steve Crook

Yes, I've thought about it. But that's as far as it's got.
Maybe when I retire.

Steve

Steve Crook

It's well worth every plastic dollar bill.
As Penfold says, they rarely turn up on the second hand market. I have alerts set on eBay and ABE books and they only alerted me to one being sold (on ABE) in the last 6 years. And that was snatched up very quickly.

Can you try ordering it through your local library? See how far that gets.

Steve