|
|
|
|
Walter Sparrow was born on January 22 1927, in London, England. Walter appeared as the blind man, Duncan in the 1991 movie, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” with Kevin Costner and he told me that he had been honoured to work with Kevin Costner. In 1993 Walter appeared as Weatherstaff, in the movie, “The Secret Garden”. In 1995 Walter was cast in the movie, “Now and Then”, starring Demi Moore and was thrilled at the prospect of working with her. During our friendship, Walter flew off to America when filming was about to commence and took the role of “Crazy Pete.” Walter appeared on British television in numerous programmes over the years, but began his acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company when he was a young man. Through my friendship with Walter Sparrow in 1995 and 1996, I was inspired to write this book, and Walter took a great interest in the history of Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), when I met him in a Chiswick restaurant, and he was instrumental in locating through the Mayor of Winchester in England, the English translation of the verbatim account of the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, which took place in 1603 and was located in a book written by Richard Tonson in 1677, which was in turn, located by the archivists at the Hampshire Record Office. I had been searching for a translation of Raleigh’s trial since I was a young child of 11, after a visit to the Tower of London with a school party, and although I had located the original manuscripts of the trial at the Public Record Office in London, known as KB8/58, I could not afford to have them translated from the Elizabethan Secretary’s hand. Walter Sparrow and I, spent many happy hours together, discussing the prospective film script of Raleigh’s Trial, over numerous dinners in posh London restaurants. Walter bought me my first word processor in 1995 and I began work on this book. We both agreed that when I had finished researching and writing this history book, Walter Sparrow was going to turn it into a film script. My character, John Talbot who presents Sir Walter Raleigh’s history to the reader, was written with Walter Sparrow in mind and I had hoped that one day he would take the role of John Talbot, if a film was ever made of “The King’s Quinto”. Walter Sparrow and I, even discussed film directors, and we decided that Roman Polanski would be the director we would approach because of his particularly sensitive portrayal of Thomas Hardy’s “Tess” (of the Durbervilles). Sadly, that film script will never be written by Walter Sparrow now, because this book took me 7 years to research and write, and Walter Sparrow died before I could show him the finished manuscript, just as an artist keeps his painting hidden until it is finished. Walter was unaware that I had found a publisher for this work. Rest in peace, Mr. Sparrow. I miss you. Barbara O’Sullivan
|