The Empress of Ireland

A Chronicle of an Unusual Friendship

If you know who Brian Desmond Hurst is, I need only report that Christopher Robbins is a fine anecdotist who accurately, amusingly, and affectionately describes the unusual characters and scenes that make up the time he spent with Hurst collaborating on a film. If you do not know him, I can set the stage no better than by reporting that Hurst the film director made Scrooge, the quintessential Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim and offering Robbins’ opening scene: Brian walking into the pub at 11am bearing an orange for the barkeep to make his breakfast mimosa with; builders taking an early pint insult “the old queen”; Brian buying them a round of drinks and, as the cowed and sheepish men mutter their thanks, delivering the exit line, “I am not an old queen, I am the Empress of Ireland.”