Montague Haltrecht
Montague Haltrecht | |
---|---|
Born | Willesden, Middlesex, England | 27 February 1932
Died | 27 March 2010 Bloomsbury, London, England | (aged 78)
Other names | Monty Haltrecht |
Years active | 1964–2009 |
Partner | Nicholas Amer 1965–2010 (his death) |
Montague Haltrecht (27 February 1932 – 27 March 2010) was an English writer, literary critic, model and radio and TV presenter. Over the course of his literary career he wrote four novels, Jonah and His Mother (1964), A Secondary Character (1965), The Devil is a Single Man (1969) and The Edgware Road (1970), exploring different aspects of Jewish life, and a biography of Sir David Webster, The Quiet Showman (1975), along with several short stories and radio and TV plays. He won the Henfield Foundation Award for his first two novels and gained a BAFTA nomination for his TV play Can You Hear Me Thinking?.
As a character model, he worked for the Ugly Models agency, and appeared in advertisements for Schweppes, Weetabix, Right Guard and Sony, amongst others. He was employed as new fiction reviewer by The Sunday Times and also contributed numerous reviews to many other leading British publications.
From the 1980s onwards he presented, and sometimes wrote, several radio and TV programmes for the BBC on a variety of subjects, including literature, opera and music.
Family background and early life
Montague Haltrecht was born in
Herbert Haltrecht was killed in action in
Education
Haltrecht attended the
Early career
For the first six years after leaving Oxford, Haltrecht's hopes for a literary career proved a disappointment. All of his submissions to editors were rejected, including five early novels that were never published. However, Haltrecht kept turning down his father's offer of a job in the family business. He rented a room, and to pay his rent he worked as a
Literary career
It was a short story, Clouds over Bond Street, written while working in the family dress shop, and accepted by
Fiction and film reviewer
The success of his first novel led The Sunday Times in 1965 to invite Haltrecht to be their new fiction reviewer. Haltrecht eked out his modest salary by selling the copies of books he had reviewed to bookshop owners for a few pounds each. He continued as reviewer until 1969 when he decided to give up the post so as not to interfere with the writing of any future novels. Beginning in the late 1970s, he again provided occasional reviews for
Modelling career
Despite the critics' praise, and a literary award, Haltrecht's novels had not made him any money. Following the publication of his first novel, he had found a partner in 1965, the actor Nicholas Amer, to share his life with. Amer advised him to take some photos that he had to the Ugly Models agency where he was accepted and became much in demand. The jobs on offer were so lucrative that they gave him the time he needed for writing. However, a demanding schedule of travel to Germany, Italy and South Africa soon followed.[22][23][24] Two of Haltrecht's novels, Jonah and His Mother and The Edgware Road were banned in South Africa: the first “because of certain passages considered to be incestuous” and the second because it portrayed marriage across the racial divide.[25][26]
Radio
Haltrecht had already worked for the BBC translating plays from French and Spanish. In 1983, BBC Radio producer Daniel Snowman asked Haltrecht to be the presenter of a programme called Enjoying Opera, which proved to be so successful that he was asked to do five more and which were rebroadcast in 1984.[17][27] In that same year, Haltrecht interviewed Irene Handl on BBC Radio about her book The Sioux.[17] In February 1985, BBC Radio produced his play Unhappy Disturber of Our Peace, about the relationship between the actress Sarah Siddons and the portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence, starring Dorothy Tutin and Michael Pennington.[17][28] That same year, BBC producer John Knight asked him to write and present three programmes on the life of D. H. Lawrence called Living at Full Flame, starring Michael Williams.[29] In 1988, Haltrecht wrote and presented Enter One in Sad Green for John Knight, which examined the way in which Jews have been portrayed in the theatre throughout history.[30] In 1990, BBC producer Jenny Bardwell asked him to interview Willy Russell and Julian Mitchell for the Open University, and in 1994 he presented A Night at the Opera.[citation needed] That same year, Bardwell asked him this time to present Artworks. Changing Platforms for the Open University on BBC Radio 4, which looked at writers who switched genres.
Television
In 1990 Haltrecht's first TV play, Can You Hear Me Thinking? (based on an idea by Beverly Marcus whom he credited as co-writer), about the impact of
Awards and honours
For his first two novels, Jonah and His Mother and A Secondary Character, Haltrecht won the Henfield Foundation Award in 1967 against established writers such as Bernice Rubens and Melvyn Bragg. He travelled with his partner to New York City to collect it. In 1990 he gained a BAFTA nomination for his TV play, Can You Hear Me Thinking?
Personal life
Haltrecht, being born into an
List of literary works
Novels
- Jonah and His Mother (Andre Deutsch, 1964)
- A Secondary Character (Andre Deutsch, 1965)
- The Devil is a Single Man (Collins, 1969)
- The Edgware Road (Collins, 1970)
Short stories
- Clouds over Bond Street (BBC Radio 4, 1965)
- Il vaut plus cher mort que vivant, in: La revue de poche – Graham Greene et six jeunes romanciers anglais (Éditions Robert Laffont, 1967)
- Indoor Life, in: Splinters (Hutchinson, 1968)
Drama
- Ellen Terry – The Harum Scarum Girl (one-woman stage play, 1974)
- Unhappy Disturber of Our Peace (BBC Radio, 1985)
- Can You Hear Me Thinking? (BBC Television, 1990)
Non-fiction (biography)
- The Quiet Showman: Sir David Webster and the Royal Opera House (Collins, 1975)
References
- ^ South London Press. 25 August 1964.
{{cite news}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ Brownjohn, Alan (19 February 2014). "Michael Baldwin obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
- ^ "Splinters, Edited by Alex Hamilton". The Guardian. 25 October 1968. p. 8.
- ^ "Novels in Brief". The Observer. 5 July 1964. p. 27.
- ^ "Jonah and His Mother (display ad)". The Guardian. 31 July 1964. p. 7.
- ^ Wordsworth, Christopher (3 July 1964). "Jonah and the Goldfish". The Guardian. p. 7.
- ^ "Last resort". The Jewish Chronicle. 7 August 1964.
- ^ "A Secondary Character by Montague Haltrecht (display ad)". The Observer. 19 September 1965. p. 29.
- ^ Wardle, Irving (19 September 1965). "Under Eastern Eyes". The Observer. p. 29.
- ^ Wall, Stephen (1 June 1969). "Highland growing pains". The Observer. p. 28.
- ^ Nye, Robert (5 June 1969). "The case is altered". The Guardian. p. 9.
- ^ "Novels in Brief". The Observer. 21 June 1970. p. 30.
- ^ Shrapnel, Norman (25 June 1970). "Trouble in t' bedroom". The Guardian. p. 14.
- ^ Brophy, Bridget (28 June 1970). "New Novels". The Observer. p. 28.
- ^ Hastingsl, Ronald (4 December 1975). "Making the Garden grow". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Bradbury, Ernest (3 December 1975). "New life at Covent Garden". Yorkshire Post.
- ^ a b c d Jacobs, Gerald (20 July 1984). "In View". The Jewish Chronicle.
- ^ Absaloml, Steve (5 July 1984). "The South African debate: Finney bringing first hand experience". The Stage and Television Today.
- ^ Haltrecht, Montague (20 February 1977). The Sunday Times.
{{cite news}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ Haltrecht, Monty (13 April 1984). "Misfitting in". The Times Literary Supplement.
- ^ Haltrecht, Monty (28 August 1987). "Detail to revel in". The Times Educational Supplement.
- ^ "Top model can write". The Observer. 18 May 1969. p. 40.
- ^ Richmond, Theo (21 July 1970). "A model novelist". The Guardian. p. 8.
- ^ Langley, Lee (27 August 1972). "Birth pangs of a novel". Sunday Times Colour Supplement. p. 8.
- ^ Cape Times. 17 December 1970.
{{cite news}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ The Argus. 21 January 1971. p. 15.
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: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ Karpl, Anna (2 October 1983). "This Week's Radio". The Observer. p. 48.
- ^ "Radio 4". The Guardian. 2 February 1985. p. 28.
- ^ Neville, John (17 October 1985). "Bear facts". The Listener.
- ^ Smithies, Sandy (29 October 1988). "Sunday Television and Radio – Radio 4". The Guardian. p. 47.
- ^ "Comic plays for laughs in drag as BBC unveils £87m line-up". The Guardian. 3 August 1990. p. 7.
- ^ Horner, Rosalie (12 August 1990). "Powerful voices speak for schizophrenics". The Observer. p. 63.
- ^ Wardle, Irving (20 April 2010). "Montague Haltrecht obituary". The Guardian.