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From Le Pigeonnier
"Penguin 60s."
Extract from: A short walk from Harrods. Originally published: London : Viking, 1993.
Extract from: A short walk from Harrods. Originally published: London : Viking, 1993.
85 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Dirk Bogarde
37 books29 followersDirk Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde was born of mixed Flemish, Dutch and Scottish ancestry, and baptised on 30 October 1921 at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr, Birmingham; 1892–1972), was the art editor of The Times and his mother, Margaret Niven (1898–1980), was a former actress. He attended University College School, the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow (a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account) and later studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. He began his acting career on stage in 1939, shortly before the start of World War II.
Bogarde served in World War II, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. As John Carey has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in 'The Night Porter'.
Bogarde's London West End theatre-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinée idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp (1950) co-starring Jack Warner and Bernard Lee; a handsome artist who comes to rescue of Jean Simmons during the World's Fair in Paris in So Long at the Fair, a film noir thriller; an accidental murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London (1953) as a young wing commander in Bomber Command who, against orders, opts to fly his 90th mission with his men in a major air offensive against the Germans; an unjustly imprisoned man who regains hope in clearing his name when he learns his sweetheart, Mai Zetterling, is still alive in Desperate Moment (1953); Doctor in the House (1954), as a medical student, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and James Robertson Justice as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles.
Bogarde continued acting until 1990. 'Daddy Nostalgie' was his final film.
Bogarde served in World War II, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. As John Carey has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in 'The Night Porter'.
Bogarde's London West End theatre-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinée idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp (1950) co-starring Jack Warner and Bernard Lee; a handsome artist who comes to rescue of Jean Simmons during the World's Fair in Paris in So Long at the Fair, a film noir thriller; an accidental murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London (1953) as a young wing commander in Bomber Command who, against orders, opts to fly his 90th mission with his men in a major air offensive against the Germans; an unjustly imprisoned man who regains hope in clearing his name when he learns his sweetheart, Mai Zetterling, is still alive in Desperate Moment (1953); Doctor in the House (1954), as a medical student, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and James Robertson Justice as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles.
Bogarde continued acting until 1990. 'Daddy Nostalgie' was his final film.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 17, 2020
It is simply incredible now to think that Dirk Bogarde wrote 7 volumes of autobiography without revealing that he was gay. Of course it is now known that Bogarde and his long time partner Anthony Forwood moved to Provence for a better lifestyle as a gay couple in a country that was not (at the time anyway) as judgemental as England.
“Bogarde’s friend, Helena Bonham Carter believed he would not have been able to come out during later life, since this might have demonstrated that he had been forced to camouflage his sexual orientation during his film career.”
This Penguin 60s book From Le Pigeonnier is taken from A Short Walk from Harrods, his sixth volume of autobiography. I must say I don’t read many memoirs and have actually flipped through a few of the Provence and Tuscany memoirs and put them back down again but this one kept my attention from the beginning.
I love Bogarde’s writing style and in fact, it’s obvious, he’s an accomplished writer. I’ll let his writing speak for itself:
“In the early spring, clumps of hellebore hung acid-green bells in clusters along the goat tracks, or a wind-wrenched bramble thrust tiny buds agains the aching ice-blue sky. In the little fields, or dells, the new barley and wheat were a green gauze, as this and sparse as a hair transplant. Crows and ravens stalked about grubbing, or seeking twigs and straw for nests. Sometimes, but very rarely and only when the dogs had capered miles away, you might catch a fleeting sight of a wildcat, but they melted into the thyme and rock-hugging juniper and myrtle. And one was never quite certain that they had been there, otherwise the silence sang, and only the distant tinkle of a goat bell or the very vaguest whisper of trickling water from a hidden spring broke the perfect glory of the silence.”
“Bogarde’s friend, Helena Bonham Carter believed he would not have been able to come out during later life, since this might have demonstrated that he had been forced to camouflage his sexual orientation during his film career.”
This Penguin 60s book From Le Pigeonnier is taken from A Short Walk from Harrods, his sixth volume of autobiography. I must say I don’t read many memoirs and have actually flipped through a few of the Provence and Tuscany memoirs and put them back down again but this one kept my attention from the beginning.
I love Bogarde’s writing style and in fact, it’s obvious, he’s an accomplished writer. I’ll let his writing speak for itself:
“In the early spring, clumps of hellebore hung acid-green bells in clusters along the goat tracks, or a wind-wrenched bramble thrust tiny buds agains the aching ice-blue sky. In the little fields, or dells, the new barley and wheat were a green gauze, as this and sparse as a hair transplant. Crows and ravens stalked about grubbing, or seeking twigs and straw for nests. Sometimes, but very rarely and only when the dogs had capered miles away, you might catch a fleeting sight of a wildcat, but they melted into the thyme and rock-hugging juniper and myrtle. And one was never quite certain that they had been there, otherwise the silence sang, and only the distant tinkle of a goat bell or the very vaguest whisper of trickling water from a hidden spring broke the perfect glory of the silence.”
January 26, 2021
I have been lucky enough to pick up the complete Penguin 60 collection, something I have had my eye on for a while. The series is a showcase of the breadth and diversity of their publishing portfolio celebrating their publishing at 60 years (we are not that far away from another of their milestones).
So what of the first books I picked from this collection – well it is part of the autobiography series from Dirk Bogarde. For those that do not remember him he was suave English actor who became a household name in the hey-day of British Cinema. He wrote a number of autobiographical musings which I will admit I have not read (am not really a biography person) which I think made the gentle observations about his life in France all the more touching. It is clear that he moved in to a small rural community which not only had not been touched greatly by the modern world around it but did not have any interest in it either. As a result it took time for the locals to warm to him and his household but when they did he discovered a warmth and acceptance it appears he was missing from home.
So what of the first books I picked from this collection – well it is part of the autobiography series from Dirk Bogarde. For those that do not remember him he was suave English actor who became a household name in the hey-day of British Cinema. He wrote a number of autobiographical musings which I will admit I have not read (am not really a biography person) which I think made the gentle observations about his life in France all the more touching. It is clear that he moved in to a small rural community which not only had not been touched greatly by the modern world around it but did not have any interest in it either. As a result it took time for the locals to warm to him and his household but when they did he discovered a warmth and acceptance it appears he was missing from home.
May 23, 2016
This Penguin 60 edition is an excerpt from Dirk Bogarde's A Short Walk from Harrods, one of his numerous autobiographies.
It tells of the setting up of his life in Provence, France, at the property his bought called Le Pigeonnier. It is a nicely written book about some of the circumstances, the local people and his interactions during this time.
Bogarde is an exceptionally nice man, and he puts a positive spin on almost everything and everyone. His writing jumps back an forward in time in this book - as tells of a person he will jump from meeting them the first time to the end of their interactions (often the death of the person). He describes well in his writing, and he doesn't pad it out unnecessarily.
Not my normal reading genre, but a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
It tells of the setting up of his life in Provence, France, at the property his bought called Le Pigeonnier. It is a nicely written book about some of the circumstances, the local people and his interactions during this time.
Bogarde is an exceptionally nice man, and he puts a positive spin on almost everything and everyone. His writing jumps back an forward in time in this book - as tells of a person he will jump from meeting them the first time to the end of their interactions (often the death of the person). He describes well in his writing, and he doesn't pad it out unnecessarily.
Not my normal reading genre, but a nice way to spend a couple of hours.
January 1, 2025
I promised myself no more Penguin 60s. But they’re just sitting there like grapes… and my other alternative is a big depressing history book…
So, what makes Dirk Bogarde’s memoir of living in Provence any better or worse than A Year in Provence or Elizabeth David or any other of the seemingly millions of books of the English People Fall in Love with Southern France genre? He was openly gay at a time when almost no other actor was. He is good on people and history and landscape - much less about food than most other books in the genre. I liked the tone of nostalgic melancholy.
So, what makes Dirk Bogarde’s memoir of living in Provence any better or worse than A Year in Provence or Elizabeth David or any other of the seemingly millions of books of the English People Fall in Love with Southern France genre? He was openly gay at a time when almost no other actor was. He is good on people and history and landscape - much less about food than most other books in the genre. I liked the tone of nostalgic melancholy.
March 23, 2014
Before Peter Mayle became famous for his books about a Briton's life in Provence with A YEAR IN PROVENCE (1990), the actor Dirk Bogarde took up writing as a second career, starting with a volume of autobiography in 1977. The text of this Penguin60 volume comes from the sixth book in Bogarde's series, A SHORT WALK FROM HARROD'S (1993). His comfortable writing style and his keen observation of the people he encounters, makes this a delightful read. It inspires one to investigate the autobiographical set in full, and even the novels. Travelling and living abroad vicariously seems very attractive in Bogarde's confident prose.
Die akteur Dirk Bogarde het in 'n stadium die silwerdoek agtergelaat en begin skryf. Hy het onder meer 'n reeks van ses outobiografiese boeke gepubliseer, wat vertel het van onder meer sy lewe in Provence in Suid-Frankryk. Hierdeur is hy 'n voorloper van Peter Mayle en die Afrikaanse skrywer Marita van der Vyver. Bogarde se vertelwyse is gemaklik en hy neem skerp waar. Hy verdoesel nie die probleme nie, maar (soos die ander genoemde skrywers) laat die lewe in hierdie besondere landstreek uiters aantreklik klink. Die lees hiervan is so lekker soos 'n soet skeppie nagereg!
Die akteur Dirk Bogarde het in 'n stadium die silwerdoek agtergelaat en begin skryf. Hy het onder meer 'n reeks van ses outobiografiese boeke gepubliseer, wat vertel het van onder meer sy lewe in Provence in Suid-Frankryk. Hierdeur is hy 'n voorloper van Peter Mayle en die Afrikaanse skrywer Marita van der Vyver. Bogarde se vertelwyse is gemaklik en hy neem skerp waar. Hy verdoesel nie die probleme nie, maar (soos die ander genoemde skrywers) laat die lewe in hierdie besondere landstreek uiters aantreklik klink. Die lees hiervan is so lekker soos 'n soet skeppie nagereg!
May 31, 2022
What a gem of a little book! This is part of the Penguin 60s, celebrating Penguin’s 60th anniversary and published in 1995. It’s an excerpt taken from one of Dirk Bogarde’s autobiographies, A Short Walk from Harrods. Although only 85 pages, it manages to portray his idyllic life in Provence and describes the local characters so well that you are immediately there sharing the experience. Delightful!
January 11, 2020
Dirk Bogarde is settling into his life in Provence, France. He has bought the property Le Pigeonnier. This autobiography describes the quaint interactions with the people in this small and nearly forgotten village... almost a biography of the numerous individuals he encounters than an autobiography.
September 25, 2021
A narrative
October 10, 2013
This pocket size booklet is one of a series by Penguin, published as pengiun 60s. An extract taken from Bogarde's sixth volume of autobiography,'A Short Walk from Harrods.' This is an enjoyable 84 page read of his time in living in Provence for over two decades.
There were sixty booklets released in this series.
There were sixty booklets released in this series.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews