Celia-imrie-(c)-chris-floyd — Celia Imrie

Orphans of the Storm

Celia Imrie and Fidelis Morgan Chaired by Triona Adams

Friday, 16 September 2022

2:00pm

1 hour

Sheldonian Theatre

£7 - £12.50

Olivier award-winning actress and bestselling novelist Celia Imrie talks about her latest work, Orphans of the Storm, and about her life on stage and screen. She will be joined by friend and fellow actress and writer Fidelis Morgan, who did the research for the novel.

Imrie’s fifth novel is an epic tale based on the sinking of the Titanic. Seamstress Marcella Caretto is resolved to divorce her cruel and controlling husband Michael and win custody of their two boys. Meanwhile, New York socialite Margaret Hays is heading home on the Titanic, which is also carrying two infants with false names. The paths of Marcella, Michael and Margaret are about to cross, and nothing will be the same again.

Imrie is best known for her roles in the films The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Calendar Girls, Nanny McPhee, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, Year by the Sea, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and A Cure for Wellness. She is also known for television roles in After You’ve Gone, A Dark Adapted Eye and Acorn Antiques. Imrie has also performed on many of London’s top stages including winning the Olivier Award for best actress in a musical for Acorn Antiques: The Musical! She is also writer of the bestselling novels Not Quite Nice and Nice Work (If You Can Get It) and of an autobiography, The Happy Hoofer.

Morgan is a theatre historian and actor. Her non-fiction books include The Female Wits, the first study of women playwrights of the Restoration and the biographies, A Woman Of No Character, and The Well-Known Troublemaker. Her four historical murder mysteries featuring the Countess Ashby dela Zouche have been translated into several languages. Morgan’s theatrical adaptation of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela won her a nomination as most promising playwright, while her adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square played for an extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith. Screen appearances include Jeeves and Wooster, As Time Goes By, and Mr Majeika. She has played in theatre and directed Drama At Inish, with Paul O’Grady and Celia Imrie, But It Still Goes On (lost play by Robert Graves) with Alan Cox and Sophie Ward, and Imrie’s revue/cabaret Laughing Matters.

They will be introduced by Triona Adams, director of the festival’s crime fiction programme.

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