Issue 14 - University of Winchester

Venta magazine - Issue 14 - New Year 2006Non Fiction: Our latest releasesScreenwriting GeniusDr. Sarah Cardwell (BA Drama, Theatreand Television Studies 1992-1995) hasreleased her new book - “AndrewDavies”, published by ManchesterUniversity Press.This publication follows the success of her firstbook ‘Adaptation Revisited: Television and theClassic Novel’ (2002).“Andrew Davies is one of today’s most prolificand recognisable television screenwriters,” sheexplains. His impressive list of titles includes AVery Peculiar Practise, To Serve Them All MyDays, Pride and Prejudice, Othello and mostrecently He Knew He Was Right. Hisinterpretation of Mr Darcy and his wet shirt hasbecome legendary! He has also written a numberof original drama serials, single plays, films(including Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason)stage plays, and books for adults and children.“Davies has an incredibly strong commitment toconveying characters,” says Sarah. “He reallygets involved with them and places them at thecentre of his work. His female characters inparticular are captivating – think of AlexKingston in Moll Flanders or Natasha Little asBecky Sharp in Vanity Fair.”Sarah’s new book looks at Davies’s work from theearly 1960s right up to the present day. Thescreenwriter has read the book, and says heparticularly enjoyed reading about his early work,some of which he’d almost forgotten he’d done!“I was interested in how much control Davieshas over his programmes,” reflects Sarah. “I wassurprised to find that although he ‘only’ writesthe scripts; he manages to make his mark oneach one. Each programme is distinctively‘Davies’“Thomas Hardy …A Scholarly ReviewRoger Lowman’s new book on ThomasHardy has been taking the literary worldby storm! ‘Thomas Hardy’s theDorsetshire Labourer and Wessex’ setsout to challenge key questions about theway Hardy represented nineteenthcentury rural England.“I’ve been reading Hardy now for fifty years,”laughs Roger who was Head of School ofCultural Studies at Winchester from 1970 to1998. “I rather fell into this particular topicbecause of teaching 16th Century literature,which takes you into Pastoral. I wonderedinitially how pastoral worked in the context ofthe nineteenth–century realist novel, and thisbecame the basis of my PhD thesis.“The first half is an edition of an essay Hardywrote back in 1883 entitled ‘The DorsetshireLabourer’. It’s a convenient way of opening upquestions about how Hardy represented thenineteenth century rural world in his novels,which then becomes the focus of the secondhalf of the book.“The book has received a lot of interest, whichis really nice as it challenges some comfortableand well-established notions that Hardy is areliable and sympathetic recorder of ruralsociety. He isn’t.”Update onStreet Drugs“The drugs industry is changing rapidly,” said former policeman, Dr David Emmett whocompleted his BSc in Psychology at Winchester in 1999 and completed a PhD in cognitivepsychology in 2003. David, who is now a lecturer in Psychology at the University, has workedfor over 30 years for Hampshire Constabulary. He was also awarded the British Empire Medalin the New Year’s Honours list in 1987 for his work with solvent abusing youngsters.The last few months have seen the revision ofhis two books surrounding the issues of drugsmisuse co-written with former colleague,Graeme Nice from the NHS Drug Service inBasingstoke.“A lot has changed since the late nineties whenwe first wrote the books,” said David who hasworked closely with drugs education in schoolsover the years. “Amongst other matters, we’vehad to include areas such as ‘date rape’ drugsand new medical evidence about the linksbetween cannabis and schizophrenia.Obviously, the legal section has had to becompletely rewritten too.”The information handbook, ‘UnderstandingStreet Drugs’ which acts as a companion bookto ‘Understanding Drug Issues’ was alsopublished recently by Jessica KingsleyPublishing.6