Callow, Simon
Love is where it Falls The Story of a Passionate Friendship
Publisher: Fromm International, January 1, 1999.
Edition: First
Book Condition: New
Jacket Condition: New
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0880642394 / 9780880642392
When Simon Callow, the celebrated stage and screen actor and director, first met Margaret Ramsay in 1980, he could hardly have suspected that his encounter with the world-famous theatrical agent would blossom into a most improbable affair of the heart. There was age, for one thing: Callow was barely thirty; Ramsay was seventy. Also, Callow was in the midst of an all-consuming love affair with his handsome Egyptian-Turkish boyfriend, film director Aziz Yehia. For the next eleven years, until her death in 1991, Callow and Ramsay conducted an intense, exhilarating liaison in meetings and letters, exchanging intimacies charged with the fervor of trembling emotion, augmented by a mutual passion for art.
From Kirkus Reviews
Drawing on recollections, letters, and diary entries, British actor and biographer Callow (Orson Welles, 1996) embarks on a personal and highly emotional narrative about his relationship with the eccentric London play agent Peggy Ramsay. Despite an age difference of about 40 years, Callow, a homosexual, plies words such as ``passionate'' and ``electric'' to describe the kind of friendship he shared with Ramsey. Callow was naturally intrigued by this woman who seemed to have been romantically involved with every major writer of the 20th century, and he was fascinated by her vitality, originality of thought, and independence. For Peggy, who built her life according to the rules of drama, no relationship with a client could be sustained without some degree of intimacy. Simon and Peggy hit it off at their first business meeting, which was followed by a long series of evenings spent together at theaters, restaurants, or listening to music at her book- and artifact-filled home. However, the story of this intellectually vibrant and sexually charged friendship reveals more than the author is willing to admit. Through several passing allusions to his childhood, Callow inadvertently casts Ramsey in the role of his beloved and protective grandmother. As a surrogate granny, she showered the struggling actor with lavish gifts, even buying him his first apartment. Conversely, the young actor must have given the aging ``femme fatale'' a final chance to feel like an erotic object. Peggy's jealousy, stoked by Simon's interaction with other women, her declarations of affection for him, and her strategic use of candlelight and provocative clothes are portrayed as both sweet and pathetic. Conveniently, his homosexuality, and not her old age, ostensibly stood in the way of sexual consummation. Despite the slightly twisted nature of this relationship, both apparently regarded it as extremely rewarding (Ramsay died in 1991). Although Callow's intimate confessions will be of little interest to anyone else, the occasional reader will at least appreciate his engaging writing style. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
...[a] passionate and poignant memoir... -- The New York Times Book Review, Mel Gussow
About the Author
Simon Callow has appeared on stage and in many films, including the hugely popular Four Weddings and a Funeral. His books include Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor and Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu.
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