Letters From Wingfield Farm
1 journaler for this copy...
In accordance with the bookcrossing initiative http://www.readerofthestack.com/whatisstephenharperreading-bookcrossingedition I will be sending this off to Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the beginning of June, along with the following letter:
Dear Mr. Harper;
I have been inspired by Yann Martel’s initiative “What Is Stephen Harper Reading?” to send you this book: “Letters from Wingfield Farm”, written by Dan Needles. This is a fictional collection of letters to the editor of the Larkspur weekly newspaper from Walt Wingfield. Walt has decided to give up his lucrative job as a stock broker in Toronto, and buys a farm in Persephone County. These letters are Walt’s accounts of trying to make it as an old-fashioned gentleman farmer, despite his new neighbours’ advice and antics. Told with humour and humanity, the reader feels truly connected with the lives of these people.
This is also a Canadian success story. In 1984 the one-man play “Letter from Wingfield Farm” (directed by Douglas Beattie) premiered in Rosemont, Ontario. Rod Beattie is a remarkable actor and plays all the parts, going from one character to another with the ease of a shapeshifter. In the course of an evening, audiences have rolled laughing in the aisles and sobbed quietly into handkerchiefs, and the critics have raved. Since then the team of Dan Needles, Rod Beattie, and Douglas Beattie have gone on to produce a total of seven plays following the adventures of Walt Wingfield. The plays have been performed all across Canada and into the United States; they have been broadcast over CBC Radio and shown on national television. Recently, Rod Beattie gave his 4,000th performance as Walt with the opening of the seventh play “Wingfield’s Lost and Found” … audiences are still laughing and crying, and critics are still raving.
In 1989 Dan Needles put together this book version of the first three plays, and in 2005 he released a book version of the next three plays entitled “Wingfield’s Hope” - both books were shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did, and perhaps you will be moved take in one of the plays as well. Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Dear Mr. Harper;
I have been inspired by Yann Martel’s initiative “What Is Stephen Harper Reading?” to send you this book: “Letters from Wingfield Farm”, written by Dan Needles. This is a fictional collection of letters to the editor of the Larkspur weekly newspaper from Walt Wingfield. Walt has decided to give up his lucrative job as a stock broker in Toronto, and buys a farm in Persephone County. These letters are Walt’s accounts of trying to make it as an old-fashioned gentleman farmer, despite his new neighbours’ advice and antics. Told with humour and humanity, the reader feels truly connected with the lives of these people.
This is also a Canadian success story. In 1984 the one-man play “Letter from Wingfield Farm” (directed by Douglas Beattie) premiered in Rosemont, Ontario. Rod Beattie is a remarkable actor and plays all the parts, going from one character to another with the ease of a shapeshifter. In the course of an evening, audiences have rolled laughing in the aisles and sobbed quietly into handkerchiefs, and the critics have raved. Since then the team of Dan Needles, Rod Beattie, and Douglas Beattie have gone on to produce a total of seven plays following the adventures of Walt Wingfield. The plays have been performed all across Canada and into the United States; they have been broadcast over CBC Radio and shown on national television. Recently, Rod Beattie gave his 4,000th performance as Walt with the opening of the seventh play “Wingfield’s Lost and Found” … audiences are still laughing and crying, and critics are still raving.
In 1989 Dan Needles put together this book version of the first three plays, and in 2005 he released a book version of the next three plays entitled “Wingfield’s Hope” - both books were shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did, and perhaps you will be moved take in one of the plays as well. Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
I'll be putting the book and the letter in the mail tomorrow for Mr. Harper in Ottawa. I hope he receives it before Parliament breaks for the summer.
