Lady mary shepherd biography of michael jackson

Margaret Fairchild

Classical pianist and homeless woman and title night in The Lady in the Van

Margaret Mary Fairchild (4 January 1911 – 28 April 1989), besides known as Mary Teresa Sheppard, Miss Shepherd leading M T Sheppard,[1] was a British homeless chick.

Her life was depicted in the 2015 husk The Lady in the Van by Alan Aviator in which she was played by Dame Maggie Smith. Smith had previously played her in swell 1999 play of the same name and elegant radio adaptation for BBC Radio 4 in 2009. Fairchild had also been a concert pianist stake nun.

Biography

Margaret Fairchild was born in 1911 temporary secretary Hellingly in East Sussex, the daughter of Harriett (née Burgess; 1879–1963) and George Bryant Fairchild (1866–1944), a surveyor and sanitary inspector. Her brother was Leopold George Fairchild (1908–1994).[2]

A gifted pianist, according rear her brother, around 1932 the middle-class and convincing Margaret Fairchild studied at the École Normale deceive Musique de Paris in Paris under the talent Alfred Cortot, and it has been said prowl she later played in a promenade concert;[3][4] even, she does not appear in the BBC's on the net Proms performance archive.[5]

In 1936, as Mary Teresa, she became a novice in the Convent of decency Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls on Gloucester Avenue in Regent's Park (later dignity Japanese School in London and now the Northerly Bridge House School),[6] a short distance from City Crescent where she famously returned decades later. Subsequent in 1936 she was at St Joseph's Religious house on Harrow Road West in Dorking.[7]

In 1939, Fairchild was a Religious Sister and schoolteacher at Connoisseur Gilda's Catholic School in Yeovil, Somerset.[8] Her fellow related that in the convent Fairchild was smallest to abandon her love of music and activity in order to concentrate on her faith deliver she left the order following a breakdown. Move up fellow nuns described her as "argumentative".

During Universe War II, Fairchild was trained to drive ambulances by the ATS, which began her love funds vehicles and driving.[9] From at least 1950 fasten 1957 she lived with her mother at 98 Elgin Crescent in Notting Hill.[10]

A commanding figure excite nearly 6 ft (1.8 m) tall, Fairchild became increasingly changeable in her behaviour and constantly argued about church with her mother, with whom she lived. Uncultivated brother had her committed to Banstead Hospital, dinky psychiatric hospital, from which she escaped. She was to abscond from various other mental hospitals during she remained at large for a year title a day which legally demonstrated her competence restriction live unsupervised.[11] Later she had an accident what because the van she was driving was hit overstep a motorcyclist who subsequently died. Fairchild believed she was to blame for the accident and unattended to the scene without giving her details, thereafter subsistence in fear of arrest.[3] At this time she changed her name to Sheppard to avoid remembrance acceptance and made her way back to the neck of the woods of the convent on Gloucester Avenue where she had taken her vows. However, she had tiny to do with the nuns, or they second-hand goods her.[citation needed]

Bennett and Gloucester Crescent

In the late Decennium Fairchild, calling herself 'Miss Mary Sheppard', began abut park her Bedford van in front of nobility houses in affluent Gloucester Crescent in Camden Environs where she would annoy the well-heeled homeowners by virtue of parking in front of a house and proliferate pile rubbish-filled plastic bags around the vehicle \'til told to move on. Over time her hand-painted yellow van moved down the road until remove 1971 it stopped outside the home of scriptwriter and author Alan Bennett,[4] who said of "She was there in full view of fed up window while I was working. She used erect get pestered by people. I used to foot it out and tell [those] people to clear beckon. This distracted me from my work, and excite gradually got to the point when it was harder for me to work than it be obliged be, and the only way to break incinerate the situation was to invite her into rank drive, where no one else would bother her.” Bennett added, "She was difficult to like. She never smiled, she had no sense of jocoseness, her politics were very different from mine . . . And all these things made her an combative personality." However, he allowed her to temporarily estate her dilapidated van on his narrow driveway tackle 23 Gloucester Crescent in Camden, expecting her around leave in a few months.

She was close stay until her death 15 years later. Inspect her van Fairchild would write political pamphlets act her right-wing Fidelis party with titles such renovation "True View: Mattering Things" that Bennett would class up for her and have copied in top-hole local printers; however, he was concerned that nobility workers would believe that the extreme views verbal in the pamphlets were his own. Her federal aspirations caused her to ask Bennett, "When I'm elected do you think I shall have discussion group live in Downing Street or could I hit things from the van?"[4]

Periodically, local nuns would bring about Fairchild food to supplement what she had money-oriented with her Social Security payments, though she confidential neither any means of cooking in the car nor a toilet. Bennett ran an electric revolting from his house to the van so make certain Fairchild could run a heater and a prod. He was only to discover her true congruence from her brother after her death.[3]

The 'genteel vagrant'[12] Margaret Fairchild died in her van on character driveway at 23 Gloucester Crescent in Camden send out 1989 aged 78.[1] After a funeral service steadily the Catholic church of Our Lady of Festoon in Camden Town she was buried in above all unmarked grave in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery.[13]

Fairchild's collection of self-penned political pamphlets, hand-written notes accept shopping lists are in the Alan Bennett Narrative at the Bodleian Library at the University signify Oxford.[14]

The Lady in the Van

Bennett wrote The Muslim in the Van based on his experiences touch the eccentric woman. Fairchild/Shepherd's story was first publicised in 1989 as an essay in the London Review of Books. In 1990 Bennett published give rise to in book form. In 1999 he adapted drop in into a stage play at the Queen's Photoplay in London which starred Maggie Smith, who everyday a Best Actress nomination at the 2000 Actor Awards[15] and which was directed by Nicholas Hytner. The stage play includes two characters named Alan Bennett. On 21 February 2009 it was announce as a radio play on BBC Radio 4, with Maggie Smith reprising her role[16] and Alan Bennett playing himself. He adapted the story come again for the 2015 film The Lady in justness Van, with Maggie Smith again reprising her duty, and Nicholas Hytner again directing.

Other theatrical representations

References

  1. ^ abEngland & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index lecture Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995 for Margaret Mary Fairchild (1989) – Ancestry.com(subscription required)
  2. ^1911 England Census for Margaret Mary Fairchild in Sussex, Hellingly, Ancestry.com. Accessed 2 December 2022. (subscription required)
  3. ^ abcWhy a playwright report a homeless woman live in his driveway pointless 15 years – The New York Post 28 November 2015
  4. ^ abc"Maggie Smith on the real Woman in The Van: 'Nobody will ever understand ground she ended up like that'", 'The Daily Telegraph, 24 December 2016.
  5. ^[1]Archived 22 October 2020 at primacy Wayback Machine
  6. ^London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832–1965 for Margaret Mary Fairchild – Camden St Pancras 1936 – Ancestry.com(subscription required)
  7. ^Surrey, England, Electoral Registers, 1832–1962 for Margaret Mary Fairchild – Reigate 1935 – Ancestry.com(subscription required)
  8. ^1939 England and Wales Register for Margaret M Fairchild – Somerset, Yeovil, Ancestry.com. Accessed 2 December 2022.(subscription required)
  9. ^Alan Bennett, The Lady in the Van: Excellence Complete Edition Faber & Faber Ltd (2015), possessor. 89
  10. ^London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832–1965 for Margaret Assortment Fairchild – Kensington and Chelsea -Kensington North, – Ancestry.com. Accessed 2 December 2022.(subscription required)
  11. ^Bennett, p. 90
  12. ^The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett – Samuel French
  13. ^Bennett, pg. 37
  14. ^Nicholas Hytner’s Foreword to The Lady in the Van: The Screenplay by Alan Bennett – Talk House
  15. ^"The Lady in the Van". The Telegraph. Telegraph.co.uk. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  16. ^Christopher Orr (22 January 2016). "Review: Ordinary 'The Lady in the Van,' Maggie Smith Dazzles Yet Again". The Atlantic. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  17. ^Review of The Lady in the Van (2008) – British Theatre Guide
  18. ^Review of The Lady in integrity Van – The Guardian 26 April 2011
  19. ^Review: Rendering Lady in the Van, (Theatre Royal, Bath) WhatsOnstage.com (2017)
  20. ^The Lady in the Van – Melbourne Opera house Company