Marian Lines
Encyclopedia
Marian Alice Lines is a British writer and actress. The majority of Lines' works are libretti for musical productions, and many are for performance by children.
a renowned Edinburgh
Surgeon
.
At six weeks old Lines' family moved to Carthage
in Tunisia. At the age of two she returned to London. Her Father then got job with the Trinidad
telephone company. The family was ready to return from Trinidad to England when war broke out. Lines spent her early childhood in Trinidad swimming and climbing trees.
In 1944, following her father’s injury, the family returned by convoy
to England, landing in Liverpool
. After a stay with relatives in Birkenhead
her father returned to the Edinburgh firm where he had been articled. The family moved to St Andrews
in the Kingdom of Fife for two years where she acquired her love of Scottish folk tales. Lines attended Birkenhead High School where she was a friend of Patricia Routledge
. Following three and a half years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
and winning a major prize, Lines joined a Summer repertory theatre company in Perranporth in Cornwall
.
During a forces tour with Eileen Atkins
she met her husband Graham Lines. The Company was run by Peter Southey who drove the company around in a Rolls Royce
with a trailer.
Lines then became an English teacher, working at Fox School in West London providing music for the infants and Choir and running the drama club. A now lost play from the early 1970s concerned children who break into a professor’s lab and are shrunk to the size of gnats.
With Rosalind Rowland, Lines wrote two musicals, a choral fantasy and four songs.
In 1976 Eimear Murphy suggested that Lines meet John Bishop and Betty Roe
. Lines and Roe were subsequently introduced at a party and their working partnership has proved to be prolific and popular.
Lines is an active member of The Association of English Singers & Speakers.
.
Lines wrote Granny's Kitchen for Yorkshire Television
with Joy Whitby. This was a cookery programme for small children and Lines appeared as 'Granny' in the pilot episode. Lines and Whitby also wrote the scripts for the Giddy Game Show.
Lines also featured in numerous radio broadcasts.
and the hut on hens legs familiar from Mussorsky’s pictures at an exhibition
. The Illustrator Michael Foreman
expressed interest in developing the work but did not pursue the project.
The Brocklehursts was about a Victoria family with four children. One daughter is frequently naughty. In dream sequences she visits a land of sweets and the land of the witches.
Tam Lin
Choral folk fantasy based on the Scottish folk tale and a precursor of the "fables"; Blacksmith and the Changeling and Burd Ellen. A recording exists but the score is thought to be lost.
The first four poems in Tower Blocks were originally written as four songs for the School Choir.
who commissioned a further 28 poems. The volume was published with illustrations by Charles Keeping and was intended for Children aged 12 to 14. The poems give a snap shot of life for children in West London in the 1960s including the then recently constructed M4 flyover at Ladbroke Grove. Two key and contrasting poems present both sides about life in tower blocks; one child is lonely in the tower block but another is pleased to be out of the rat-infested slum.
With her husband Graham Lines, Lines re-told the stories of Romeo and Juliet
and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for children. These were published with illustrations by Brian Froud. The illustrations had originally been commissioned to accompany the retellings by Charles Lamb (writer) and the Lines’ versions needed to fit into the areas around these illustrations.
Spiders of the Morning is a novel for children with drawings by Diana de Vere Cole. The Illustrator’s husband, Tristan de Vere Cole, was a director of Kenilworth, in which Graham Lines played Leicester.
Play and Learn contains five short stories for Children.
s in 2001 and 2002. The songs for both shows were taken from the works of Noel Coward and Cole Porter.
have had a productive partnership, writing six operas, twelve musicals for children, a pantomime
, Dick Whittington (2005) and numerous pieces for choirs.
Biography
Her Mother was missionary’s daughter and a talented pianist with a love of spirituals. Her father was a Chartered Accountant and her Grandfather was Professor David Berry HartDavid Berry Hart
David Berry Hart, M.D., F.R.C.P.E. was a Scottish surgeon and teacher.-Biography:David Berry Hart was born and died in Edinburgh. His grandfather, David Berry, had been a builder in Edinburgh. His wife was Jessie Smith Welsh Berry, a first cousin, and they had two daughters and two sons...
a renowned Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
Surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
.
At six weeks old Lines' family moved to Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
in Tunisia. At the age of two she returned to London. Her Father then got job with the Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
telephone company. The family was ready to return from Trinidad to England when war broke out. Lines spent her early childhood in Trinidad swimming and climbing trees.
In 1944, following her father’s injury, the family returned by convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
to England, landing in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. After a stay with relatives in Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
her father returned to the Edinburgh firm where he had been articled. The family moved to St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
in the Kingdom of Fife for two years where she acquired her love of Scottish folk tales. Lines attended Birkenhead High School where she was a friend of Patricia Routledge
Patricia Routledge
Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...
. Following three and a half years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
and winning a major prize, Lines joined a Summer repertory theatre company in Perranporth in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
.
During a forces tour with Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
she met her husband Graham Lines. The Company was run by Peter Southey who drove the company around in a Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce (car)
This a list of Rolls-Royce motor cars and includes vehicles produced by:*Rolls-Royce Limited *Rolls-Royce Motors , which was owned by Vickers between 1980 and 1998, and after that by Volkswagen...
with a trailer.
Lines then became an English teacher, working at Fox School in West London providing music for the infants and Choir and running the drama club. A now lost play from the early 1970s concerned children who break into a professor’s lab and are shrunk to the size of gnats.
With Rosalind Rowland, Lines wrote two musicals, a choral fantasy and four songs.
In 1976 Eimear Murphy suggested that Lines meet John Bishop and Betty Roe
Betty Roe
Betty Roe is an English composer, singer, vocal coach, and conductor.-Biography:Betty Roe was born in North Kensington, London, England. Her father was a fishmonger at the Shepherd's Bush Market, and her mother was a bookkeeper...
. Lines and Roe were subsequently introduced at a party and their working partnership has proved to be prolific and popular.
Lines is an active member of The Association of English Singers & Speakers.
Television
Lines played a Southern Belle in the BBC production of Mrs Patterson with Eartha KittEartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
.
Lines wrote Granny's Kitchen for Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
with Joy Whitby. This was a cookery programme for small children and Lines appeared as 'Granny' in the pilot episode. Lines and Whitby also wrote the scripts for the Giddy Game Show.
Lines also featured in numerous radio broadcasts.
Works with music by Rosalind Rowland
The Three Enchanters (1971) based on a Russian folk story. Lines designed and assisted in making the costumes based on Russian folk dress. Characters included the three enchanters, Baba YagaBaba Yaga
Baba Yaga or Baba Roga is a haggish or witchlike character in Slavic folklore. She flies around on a giant pestle, kidnaps small children, and lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs...
and the hut on hens legs familiar from Mussorsky’s pictures at an exhibition
Pictures at an Exhibition
Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite in ten movements composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874.The suite is Mussorgsky's most famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists...
. The Illustrator Michael Foreman
Michael Foreman
Michael James Foreman is an American astronaut.-Personal:Foreman was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Wadsworth, Ohio. He is married to Lorrie Dancer of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma...
expressed interest in developing the work but did not pursue the project.
The Brocklehursts was about a Victoria family with four children. One daughter is frequently naughty. In dream sequences she visits a land of sweets and the land of the witches.
Tam Lin
Tam Lin
Tam Lin is the hero of a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. The story revolves around the rescue of Tam Lin by his true love from the Queen of the Fairies...
Choral folk fantasy based on the Scottish folk tale and a precursor of the "fables"; Blacksmith and the Changeling and Burd Ellen. A recording exists but the score is thought to be lost.
The first four poems in Tower Blocks were originally written as four songs for the School Choir.
Books for Children
Having written the first four poems of Tower Blocks to be set to music, Lines was introduced to the Children's book publisher Franklin WattsFranklin Watts
-History:Franklin Watts Inc. was formed in 1942. The company was sold to Grolier in 1957. When the namesake founder retired in 1967, he moved to London to start Franklin Watts Ltd. in 1969. Franklin Watts retired again in 1976....
who commissioned a further 28 poems. The volume was published with illustrations by Charles Keeping and was intended for Children aged 12 to 14. The poems give a snap shot of life for children in West London in the 1960s including the then recently constructed M4 flyover at Ladbroke Grove. Two key and contrasting poems present both sides about life in tower blocks; one child is lonely in the tower block but another is pleased to be out of the rat-infested slum.
With her husband Graham Lines, Lines re-told the stories of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for children. These were published with illustrations by Brian Froud. The illustrations had originally been commissioned to accompany the retellings by Charles Lamb (writer) and the Lines’ versions needed to fit into the areas around these illustrations.
Spiders of the Morning is a novel for children with drawings by Diana de Vere Cole. The Illustrator’s husband, Tristan de Vere Cole, was a director of Kenilworth, in which Graham Lines played Leicester.
Play and Learn contains five short stories for Children.
Musical revues
Lines wrote two revues, Mrs Worthington’s Secret Heart and Let’s Kick Mrs Worthington, for the duo Divas 2, and were premièred at the Edinburgh festivalEdinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
s in 2001 and 2002. The songs for both shows were taken from the works of Noel Coward and Cole Porter.
Works with music by Betty Roe
Starting with their initial collaboration The Barnstormers (1976), re-published with new teaching materials by ChesterNovello, to Brunel: The Little Man in the Tall Hat (2006) Lines and Betty RoeBetty Roe
Betty Roe is an English composer, singer, vocal coach, and conductor.-Biography:Betty Roe was born in North Kensington, London, England. Her father was a fishmonger at the Shepherd's Bush Market, and her mother was a bookkeeper...
have had a productive partnership, writing six operas, twelve musicals for children, a pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
, Dick Whittington (2005) and numerous pieces for choirs.
Operas
- The Legend of Gallant Bevis of Southampton (1977)
- Gaslight (1983)
- A Flight of Pilgrims (1992)
- Lunch at the Cooked Goose (2000)
- Welcome to Purgatory (2003)
- Brunel: The Little Man in the Tall Hat (2006)
Musicals
- The Barnstormers (1976)
- Kookajoo and the Magic Forest
- The Most Wanted Faces (1978)
- Pardon our Rubbish
- Christmas Boxes (1980) From which are extracted the songs, Christmas Cards.
- The Trouble with spells is… (1982)
- The Mistress of Charlecote ParkCharlecote ParkCharlecote Park is a grand 16th century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon in Wellesbourne, about east of Stratford-upon-Avon and south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public...
- Destination London (Contributed two numbers)
- The Miracle Masque (1983)
- The Pink Parakeet (1984)
- Crowds (1988)
- Astron (1994)
- The Storm Hound (1996) Based on the legend of Black ShuckBlack ShuckBlack Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock or simply Shuck is the name given to a ghostly black dog which is said to roam the coastline and countryside of East Anglia...
- Floating (2002)
- The Magic Fishbone (Awaiting publication) Based on the short story by Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
Choral and other vocal works
- Burd Ellen (1976)
- A Crown of Briar Roses (1977) For Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee
- Circe Beguiled, a scena (1978). An encounter between OdysseusOdysseusOdysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
and the witch CirceCirceIn Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic , described in Homer's Odyssey as "The loveliest of all immortals", living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus.By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid...
. - A Quire of Elements (1978)
- The Blacksmith and the Changeling
- Songs for City Children
- The Family Tree (1982)
- A Cat’s Tale (1990)
- A Cycle of Elements (1995)
- St George and the Dragon (1995)
- Sing the Millennium (1999)
- Dick Whittington (2005)