Synopsis "scenes from a life"
This collection, written over a period of eight months, came about through my friendship with the writer Wendy Robertson. Over some months we spent some time exchanging books, ideas and stories from our lives. When she first suggested I try my hand at writing some of this down, I reacted by persuading myself that, with my background in the study of English Literature, I was more suited to the role of critic rather than creator.But then, unnoticed by me, the seed had been sown. So it was that one summer evening, right out of the blue, I sat down, grabbed a pen and paper, and just scribbled away. So, I wrote on, reassured by Wendy that I wasn't expected to write the great English novel. She always insists that writing is a joyous thing to do for any literate person.I have been scribbling, drafting, transcribing, and enjoying my own writing ever since. In the process of writing the pieces in Scenes from a Life, I have discovered the relevance of the experiences - good and bad - that shaped this life. I like to think that through the joy of transforming my experiences into prose I could make something general out of the particular and that age need be no barrier in learning this life-enhancing skill.Hugh CrossTudhoe 2018 Wendy Robertson's forward to Scenes from a LifeWhat kind of person begins to write seriously at the age of 80? Hugh Cross was born in 1936 into a privileged middle-class Leicester family. The second son of four children, Hugh Cross has had an interesting life, indeed a life which in the end has proved worth writing about. Hugh was obviously intellectually gifted. He went from private school on to Wyggeston, the famous grammar school, from where he won a place to the University of Cambridge. He only took up his Cambridge place after, like most boys of his generation, doing his National Service in the army. Apart from a short-lived sortie to Malta in the Suez crisis he was stationed mostly in Germany as a junior intelligence officer.After the army he went to Cambridge. He relished college life, its social life and particularly the emphasis on theatre - a commitment which has lasted him all his life. Although not in the same theatre group, he was a contemporary of Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen. Hugh relished acting and directing in his own theatre group and thoroughly enjoyed the life, alongside his studies.Unfortunately, the last stages of his experience at Cambridge were marred by family tragedy. After graduating, amongst other things, he tried teaching and working at the DSS in Leicester and London. Later, he underwent a period of serious illness and long recovery. This recovery was helped by the revival of his life-long interest in theatre, film and classical literature, while in his seventies, cultivating a new interest in fine contemporary literature.Finally, living a quiet life in the North of England, as he approached eighty years he began for the first time to write and reflect on some aspects of his interesting life. Hugh has finally expressed himself as a writer in this collection of cameos, reviews and commentaries. In my view, Hugh Cross's unsentimental, insightful writing has both universal human significance and literary value. Reading these stories offers serious pleasure.Wendy RobertsonBishop Auckland 2018
