Mixed Fancies - Brenda Blethyn

I have always liked the actress Brenda Blethyn - ever since I first remember seeing her in "Chance in a Million" a sitcom she starred in with Simon Callow on Channel 4 in the 80s. There was something incredibly endearing about her in that show, and that charm seems to be an integral part of her persona, to my mind anyway - even when she is portraying less than sympathetic characters.

Browsing the books in Tesco one day I came across "Mixed Fancies", Blethyn's memoir, and I immediately decided I wanted to read more about the girl born Brenda Bottle in Ramsgate.

Blethyn was the youngest of nine children, and her Catholic parents seem to have had a loving and enduring marriage, despite some of the poverty they had to cope with. Blethyn describes her family history well - for instance her parents didn't actually marry until 1944, despite being a couple for over 20 years. In fact by the time Brenda arrived in 1946, three of her oldest siblings had already left home.

The family lived in a shabby and bomb damaged rented house in a street named the Plains of Waterloo in Ramsgate. Blethyn describes how the window in their parents' bedroom remained open whatever the weather, simply because it was jammed. No-one seemed particularly bothered by this and certainly up until the day the family was finally allocated a council house, nobody thought to get the window fixed.

Blethyn's parents instilled in their children the importance of hard work and they encouraged industriousness in their children. Some of her brothers were earning money any which way they could from an early age, whether that be searching for pop bottles to get the penny deposit on or indulging in slightly dodgier ground in returning read magazines to the newsagent to re-sell. Stealing, however, was very much frowned upon.

Blethyn describes her formative years well but early on in the book it becomes apparent that there are some things she will mention, but not be as specific as she could be. For instance, early on Blethyn mentions how her mother's moods were variable and hints at an increasing dependency on alcohol, but this is never really explained fully. Now clearly Blethyn adored her mother but one finds it a little frustrating that her mother's alcoholism isn't really touched upon apart from in passing.

Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Roberta Taylor's childhood memoir "Too Many Mothers", I suppose I had been expecting something similar from Blethyn, but the brutal honesty I loved so much in Taylor's book is sadly missing in Blethyn's.

As Blethyn becomes more successful, the book, for me anyway, loses much of its charm. The problem is that despite her humble origins, she hasn't actually had to really struggle in her chosen profession, and at no point does she write about enduring months waiting for the phone to ring. Instead she writes about early successful auditions which saw her joining the National Theatre Company within a year of leaving drama school and of her early television work with Mike Leigh in "Grown Ups" - the sort of opportunities most young actors can only dream of.

She also falls into the name-dropping trap as her career burgeons and I hate to say this but in places she comes across as a little smug and whilst I admire her success as an actress, she would have done the profession a better service by perhaps pointing out just how fortunate she has been when so many struggle.

There are humorous moments where she describes the Golden Globe awards and how she nearly missed the announcement of her name as winner due to a minor wardrobe malfunction in the restroom, and of several experiences on location when she gets closer to nature than perhaps she would have hoped.

She describes her experience of being nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies" well, but when it comes to the actual ceremony she focuses entirely on her experience waiting for the result of Best Actress, and completely fails to mention the fate of the other four categories the film received nominations in, which I found surprising given the enthusiasm she expressed when the film received five nominations. This may seem like a petty criticism and let's face it, actors are notorious for being self-absorbed, but I found it a glaring omission on Blethyn's part - how difficult would it have been to point out that the film didn't win any of the awards it was nominated for?

To be fair when Blethyn keeps the book strictly to her family it is far more successful and she is particularly good at describing major family events such as how she managed to trace her much older brother Ted to Canada years after he lost touch with his family, and the description of her father's funeral is particularly moving.

The overriding impression I had after reading this book was of a very talented lady who has lived a fairly charmed life. Her only major blow seems to have been the breakdown of her marriage when she was still in her twenties, but even while discussing this she seems to hold much back and whilst I have no doubt she was devastated when her husband left her, she remains so matter of fact when retelling the story, it's hard to get a real feel for her sense of loss.

Such is my admiration for Brenda Blethyn I cannot help feeling guilty over the fact I actually didn't enjoy this much once Brenda had reached adulthood and left the bosom of her family, and I cannot help but think this would have made a far more entertaining read had she taken a leaf out of Roberta Taylor's book "Too Many Mothers" and kept this purely about her formative years and the characters within her colourful family.

Perhaps I am just being churlish, or perhaps my high expectations for this book left me open to disappointment, but for me anyway, this book isn't the "incredible book" the Daily Mail claims it is on the cover - it is a fairly decent read but nothing outstanding overall.

This review was previously published by me on dooyoo under the same user name