#MWF14 Ruper Thomson and Ben Watt on Family.

Rupert Thomson This party’s got to stop & Ben Watts Romany and Tom talked with Sian Prior about family and most particularly about parents, the part they play in all our lives whether they are present or absent and the enormous and brutal impact that their deaths can have. Rupert Thomson’s father was an invalid after the war and spent 10 years in hospital. His mother was a nurse and they met while his father was in hospital. Although he always imagined his father would die first it was Rupert’s mother who died unexpectedly at the age of 33 while playing tennis. He was 8 years old and forever altered by this.

Ben Watts tells the story of his mother and father’s tumultuous meeting in 1957 and their subsequent marriage, both were divorced and Ben’s mother already had triplets from her first marriage. They fell deeply in love finding a passion neither of them had in their first marriages. Over the years the differences in their backgrounds and careers started to affect their relationship and when they were in their early seventies Ben set about trying to help them find each other again. 

Sian Prior will speak at Camberwell Library on the 8 October at 7pm. Click here for more details.