Christopher Robbins was a bright but impoverished young journalist when he met Brian Desmond Hurst in the early 1970s. Hurst was then in the twilight of his career as Ireland's most prolific film director -- many years had passed since he'd made his most famous film, an adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL with Alastair Sim in 1951. But Brian's formidable desire, energy and joie de vivre were still much in evidence, and Robbins was contracted to write the screenplay for Hurst's swansong, a vast biblical epic starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Redgrave. Thus began a friendship that lasted until Brian's death in 1986. It was a period full of laughter, eccentricity, laughter, travel, adventure -- and laughter. They made an odd pair -- the elderly, theatrical and larger-than-life Hurst and the young, slightly naive but keen Robbins -- but Chris now acknowledges the debt he owes his mentor: a debt of friendship he wants to repay. This wonderful book is the result. The Box Office Blockbuster never happened, but in trying to get the project off the ground Chris had entered Brian's world. This, his memoir of that time and their friendship, is a wonderfully engaging and often hilarious portrait of one of the last great eccentrics.
The Empress of Ireland: A Chronicle of an Unusual Friendship
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'A beautifully written memoir . . . Hilarious' -- Sunday Telegraph
'Christopher Robbins is an excellent writer and has drawn an accurate picture of an extremely talented and extraordinary fantasist' -- Sir Roger Moore
'Generous in spirit, witty, unexpected and beautifully written . . . Enthralling' -- Miranda Seymour
'Magnificent . . . endlessly funny and brilliantly colourful . . . Something of a masterpiece' -- Guardian
'Recommended . . . Delightful and often hilariously funny' -- Mail on Sunday
'Storytelling at its best . . . Well written and engagingly funny . . . Thoroughly enjoyable' -- Scotland on Sunday
'This affectionate memoir [will] outrage prudes but delight everybody else' -- Independent on Sunday
'Unique and hilarious . . . truly delumptious and exotic . . . A scoundrel of a good read' -- Richard E. Grant
'Vivid and hilarious . . . deserves to become a classic' -- Sunday Times
'Wonderfully rich and vivid . . . perfectly pitched: full of deadpan comedy, but also shrewd and warm-hearted' -- William Boyd
'Christopher Robbins is an excellent writer and has drawn an accurate picture of an extremely talented and extraordinary fantasist' -- Sir Roger Moore
'Generous in spirit, witty, unexpected and beautifully written . . . Enthralling' -- Miranda Seymour
'Magnificent . . . endlessly funny and brilliantly colourful . . . Something of a masterpiece' -- Guardian
'Recommended . . . Delightful and often hilariously funny' -- Mail on Sunday
'Storytelling at its best . . . Well written and engagingly funny . . . Thoroughly enjoyable' -- Scotland on Sunday
'This affectionate memoir [will] outrage prudes but delight everybody else' -- Independent on Sunday
'Unique and hilarious . . . truly delumptious and exotic . . . A scoundrel of a good read' -- Richard E. Grant
'Vivid and hilarious . . . deserves to become a classic' -- Sunday Times
'Wonderfully rich and vivid . . . perfectly pitched: full of deadpan comedy, but also shrewd and warm-hearted' -- William Boyd
From the Back Cover
Further advance praise for THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND:
‘This enthralling memoir tells the true story of a young writer, at a formative time of his life, who goes to work for a brilliant and capricious film director nearing the end of his career. A delightful, funny and ultimately touching book, full of nostalgia and truth about their odd but gratifying friendship’
JONATHAN LYNN
‘Absolutely wonderful. THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND made me feel so much better about life: such a loving testament to an amazing character and a deep, if unusual friendship. Funny and moving, yet not at all sentimental. And what an incredible cast of characters and series of events. Above all, it is quite beautifully written’
JOHN McCARTHY
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I never read biographies. But having picked this up from a friend's desk, was completely hooked by page 10 and after a short tussle about who got to take it home, ended up buying my own copy that night.
THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND is sweet, funny, absorbing and as sharp and insightful a study of two people (the subject and the author) as you could find. The story (stories) draws you into the life of an entertaining eccentric and his youthful amanuensis (Robbins) in a most seductive way and you end up rooting for a happy outcome like a child yearning for Batman to break free from his captors.
Most of us have lived lives blissfully ignorant of Brian Desmond Hurst, the flamboyant subject of the book, and the measure of the author's success is that the veil of ignorance is lifted on very much more than a single person. It's wise and charming (did I say "charming" already? "Charm" always seems to be damning with faint praise when, in fact, its a rare commodity in a good read) and complete in its modest thought delightful ambitions. A little classic of biography. I'll have to look for another one now.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Ian Gordon
Format:Paperback
Brian Desmond Hurst was a wonderfully exotic character, highly talented and, clearly, a most colourful companion. We should be very grateful to Christopher Robbins for bringing him back from the relative obscurity into which his reputation has fallen with the passage of time. He describes their eccentric friendship so successfully that one feels on reading this excellent book that one has actually met and known his subject. I recommend it unconditionally to anyone who enjoys classic films and who likes to spend time in amusing, and often surprising, company.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By martyn auty
Format:Paperback
A delightful book which opens a window onto an almost vanished age of artistic endeavour and immoderate drinking. Ostensibly a biography of Ireland's forgotten film-maker, Brian Desmond Hurst, the book is in truth a study of benign patronage and friendship which takes the reader by surprise with its frankness and humour. The narrative is organised around the writing and planning of Hurst's valedictory move - which was never made. There are fine books about finished films but those about un-achieved 'masterpieces' make for more rewarding reading since they allow greater scope for the exercise of fantasy - the key element of Hurst's life and indeed of every great artist.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
About retirement not film making!
This is a very well written book about an unusual friendship between the book's author C.Robbins and a film director Brian Desmond Hurst, some 10+ years after he made his last... Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2010 by Tim
4.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating
I knew nothing at all about Brian Desmond Hurst before reading this book, which considering his pedigree in British cinema history is quite astonishing. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2008 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
5.0 out of 5 stars
A complete knock out of a book
This book which is part biography and part the story of a friendship is a magical and engrossing read. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2005 by Mo Carroll
5.0 out of 5 stars
A complete knock out of a book
This book which is part biography and part the story of a friendship is a magical and engrossing read. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2005 by Mo Carroll
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding biography
One of the finest biographies in years and an extremely moving, funny and life-affirming study of yet another Irish legend.
Published on 17 Jun 2005
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Most Colourful Companion
Brian Desmond Hurst was a wonderfully exotic character, highly talented and, clearly, a most colourful companion. Read more
Published on 27 May 2004 by Ian Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Grand And Vanishing Breed
Robbins' memoir of his friendship with Brian Desmond Hurst, a fiercely talented Irish film director, is brilliantly funny, deeply moving and reads like a page-turning, beautifully... Read more
Published on 14 May 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Than A Biography
The Empress of Ireland is a great book. It's far more than a biography, it's a portrait of a time, of an artist, and of an unusual and long-lasting friendship. Read more
Published on 12 May 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ireland- Hollywood
A wonderful story of an era when literature, education, manners and humor were valued.So very Irish in the apparent acceptance of opposing values ofr the protagonist and the mores... Read more
Published on 10 May 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just read it!
Where to begin?? A memoir, a biography, a book about the movie business, ameditation on friendship, this book is all of these things and yet so muchmore. Read more
Published on 24 April 2004
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