“By the Waters of Whitechapel is as much a comedy of pain as Goodbye, Columbus is a comedy of sadness; but it is a luminous, tender comedy centered on feeling and irony . . . mixing realism and fantasy in a way that recalls Chagall.” ―Isabel Quigley, Financial Times Aubrey Field, thirty-five, balding, and not exactly slim, daydreams of a rich future. “I want my life to bear fruit,” he cries, but home is with his mother above a sweetshop in Whitechapel. They are among the few survivors of what was once a large local community and they live, surrounded by strangers, in the house where Aubrey was born. Suffocating but resigned, Aubrey cannot leave Whitechapel, and he cannot leave his mother. “It was useless, he was trapped. She would never let him go.” Then fate, in the guise of Zena, the beautiful blonde daughter of a kosher butcher, intervenes. From the moment Aubrey meets this femme fatale, life becomes enormously more complicated. In pursuit of Zena, Aubrey determines to break free. He passes himself off as a young barrister with a fast sports car and forges his mother’s signature to a check. One incredible experience follows another, and for a while it seems as though Aubrey’s fantasies are about to become reality. Against the background of a Jewish East London that is fading and changing, Bernard Kops’s new novel is a novel to remember. It is at once funny and macabre, and it cuts deep into the quixotic posturing of a man who is both pathetic and endearing. Aubrey Field finally escapes from his mother and his despair, but not in the way that he or anyone else could possibly have imagined.

By the waters of Whitechapel

KOPS, Bernard

Bodley Head

By the Waters of Whitechapel

“By the Waters of Whitechapel is as much a comedy of pain as Goodbye, Columbus is a comedy of sadness; but it is a luminous, tender comedy centered on feeling and irony . . . mixing realism and fantasy in a way that recalls Chagall.” —Isabel Quigley, Financial Times Aubrey Field, thirty-five, balding, and not exactly slim, daydreams of a rich future. “I want my life to bear fruit,” he cries, but home is with his mother above a sweetshop in Whitechapel. They are among the few survivors of what was once a large local community and they live, surrounded by strangers, in the house where Aubrey was born. Suffocating but resigned, Aubrey cannot leave Whitechapel, and he cannot leave his mother. “It was useless, he was trapped. She would never let him go.” Then fate, in the guise of Zena, the beautiful blonde daughter of a kosher butcher, intervenes. From the moment Aubrey meets this femme fatale, life becomes enormously more complicated. In pursuit of Zena, Aubrey determines to break free. He passes himself off as a young barrister with a fast sports car and forges his mother’s signature to a check. One incredible experience follows another, and for a while it seems as though Aubrey’s fantasies are about to become reality. Against the background of a Jewish East London that is fading and changing, Bernard Kops’s new novel is a novel to remember. It is at once funny and macabre, and it cuts deep into the quixotic posturing of a man who is both pathetic and endearing. Aubrey Field finally escapes from his mother and his despair, but not in the way that he or anyone else could possibly have imagined.

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

The passionate past of Gloria Gaye

Norton

"In celebrating the spirit of optimism that shines through the thoughts and dreams of one extraordinary thirteen-year-old during the darkest of times, Bernard Kops has created a dramatic masterpiece" (Time Out)"This play has been a catalyst in stimulating young people not only to question the past but also to confront the very real issues of racism today." (Jenny Culank, Artistic Director of Classworks Theatre, Cambridge)In 1942 Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl, was forced into hiding with seven others in a secret annexe in Amsterdam. Dreams of Anne Frank vividly brings her story to life in a poignant and highly charged drama. Using actors, movement and song Bernard Kops re-imagines and explores Anne Frank's hidden world, a world in which she lived, fell in love and dreamed of freedom.Dreams of Anne Frank won the 1993 Time Out award for best children's production and has been performed around the world.Commentary and notes by Bernard Kops

Dreams Of Anne Frank (Student Editions)

Children's Books

Methuen Drama

On Margate sands

Secker Warburg

For the record

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Secker and Warburg

Sceker & Warburg

<p>A powerful psychological drama set in an oppressive old house in London, where grown-up siblings Norman and Sandra resist their lonely future by living out their fantasies in the music of their idol, Frank Sinatra. Norman, an agoraphobic bookbinder, works at home and heats microwave meals to perfection; Sandra, with outside job and interests, longs to break free of her existence. But the option of leaving her mentally-disturbed brother and running off with the "mystic" Phillip proves less than straightforward... This tense play's clammy grip never slackens.</p>

Playing Sinatra

Dramas & Plays

Samuel French Ltd.

Dreams of Anne Frank

Biographies

The World Is A Wedding

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Vallentine, Mitchell

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