h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Quentin Crisp - Author, Actor, Raconteur - A87916981
Author: SashaQ - happysad - Editor - U9936370

Quentin Crisp is someone I have long admired, so it was a challenge to write an Entry about him.

I'm not sure I have captured exactly the right flavour I was hoping for, but I have included some of the aspects of his life that mean the most to me. I welcome feedback from Peer Reviewers to help me to improve the Entry more.

This reads and feels just right!
There is little that I can contribute there are certainly no apparant weak points!

Good read, good work

Thanks bob!

Your readthrough is much appreciated

I also think it reads very well.

Thank you

I did add just a brief mention of relationships now, as that was what was missing before, so I'm pleased this is looking good so far

This is really good!

A few notes:

Could you maybe put a tasteful footnote in to explain the term 'rent boy', which many people may not understand? I venture hesitantly to suggest that the term 'sex worker' could be used in the explanation.

The link to 'Philadelphia' goes to 'Frankenstein'.

Could you possibly find a brief Youtube showing John Hurt in 'The Naked Civil Servant'? Or maybe a trailer? It was a very good film.

Thanks DG

Thanks for the link checking - my computer's clipboard is slow on the uptake sometimes...

I added a footnote - thank you for helping with the tastefulness

I checked youtube, but all the videos (apart from one that included the Thames TV theme tune but no mention of John Hurt!) have been removed for copyright reasons... I've added a link to an article instead so I hope that helps

Looks good to me.

This is a good, sympathetic portrait.

It must have taken some courage to live as a person of uncertain gender in the forties and fifties.

I wonder if you ought to remind your readers somewhere that the law on homosexuality in Britain changed in the sixties.

Thanks mvp

Yes, reminds me of the line in the Pet Shop Boys song 'Flamboyant' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qICFhpkXVUU - "It all takes courage, you know it - just crossing the street, well it's almost heroic..."

Excellent point - the book 'The Naked Civil Servant' wasn't published until after the law changed in 1967 so that is important information. I have updated the Entry accordingly

When was the television film you mention first broadcast? I remember seeing a television play about Quentin Crisp when I was still living in the UK - in fact it can't have been later than 1972. It made a huge impression on me.

Having grown up in a small rural town, I wasn't aware exactly of what homosexuality was - in fact, apart from Julian and Sandy on "Round the Horne" I was probably not even aware that it existed. So the play introduced me to characters of differing sexualities, presenting them as normal people.

We had a colour TV back then, but my memories seem to be that the production was in black and white. It may be that the colour palette, reflecting his circumstances, and the type of decor of the time, was broadly sepia-coloured. I can quite clearly remember the scene where he brought a huge lorry driver type chappie back to his flat. He apologised for the thick layer of dust on the mantelpiece, saying that he had found that after 3(?) years of neglect it stopped getting any thicker.

I think I must have been a little mistaken about the date. I've had a look on Wiki and found :

>>In 1975 the television version of The Naked Civil Servant was broadcast on British and US television and made both actor John Hurt and Crisp himself into stars. <<

That must have been the one I saw.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

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Thank you!

Yes, the TV version of Naked Civil Servant made a huge impression on me, too - I first saw the book when I was 16 but wasn't bold enough to borrow it from the library, and then watched the programme in 2008 and it gave me words of wisdom about being oneself I know what you mean about it seeming sepia-tinted, but it was definitely in colour because his red hair was clear to see

"After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse"

Round the Horne is classic comedy - I enjoy that too as I have some episodes on tape Julian and Sandy are outrageous, but innocent with it so I thought the humour endures more than the stereotype last time I listened (which was a while ago, admittedly)

Congratulations!

Excellent entry, about a very interesting life