The voice of Simon Russell Beale

As my readership knows, I am soon going to see King Lear, with Simon Russell Beale in the title role. More about the play here. And it struck me recently that he also did a narration of Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, one of my favourite children's books, which I blogged about here. The copy of the version I bought comes with a CD with the story read by him. I think it may be the only time I heard him. And, well, I find it surreal, Simon Russell Beale performing King Lear now, being a thespian and veteran Shakespearean actor, and incidentally reader of children's books. I don't find this demeaning at all, I know many professional actors do this, and Pumpkin Soup is a modern classic in its own right. In his entry on Wikipedia, I also learn that he is a music historian. I know so little of his work, but I like him more and more. This week, I intend to listen to the CD again, giving a lot of attention to his voice.

Pumpkin Soup

Anybody here into children books? Here is a book you can read as an adult. It is Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. Because pumpkin is in the title and pumpkin soup is the MacGuffin of the story, it can be one of your Halloween reads. Especially since the look of the very lush pictures is very autumnal. The story is about a cat, a squirrel and a duck living together in a cabin with pumpkins in the garden. With the punpkins, they make... pumpkin soup. The best soup they ever was. The cat cuts the pumpkin, the duck adds just enough salt and the squirrel does the stirring. All is well, until one morning the duck decides that he will stir the soup. Which will bring conflict. A wonderfully simple story about friendship and understanding, with very well rounded characters and beautiful, beautiful beautiful images. There are two other books with the same character, in what is sometimes called the Pumpkin soup trilogy (!). I read them all, they were all wonderful stories and it was great to see the characters again, but the first book remains my favourite.