By Robert Morrell
National Portrait Gallery
These Are The Times, A Life Of Thomas Paine. Trevor Griffiths. Nottingham, Spokesman. xii & 195pp. Paperback. ISBN 0 85124 695 8. £15.00
In a sense this book, the screenplay written by Trevor Griffith’s for the proposed film in his life of Paine, well almost, as it does not take boyhood, saddens me, since its publication infers, to me at least, that the film may never be made. Sir Richard Attenborough attempts to obtain funding for the film have not met with the success they deserve, which is a great pity, as Paine’s life would make a superb film. We can but hope that the project even now will come to fruition.
Set in Britain, America and France, Griffiths recreates episodes in Paine’s life with a dialogue that incorporates his opinions, and those of others, but moulded into a continuous thread with what may be described as a degree of literary license, but it should be remembered that in a film of Paine’s life the scriptwriter would have no option but to combine some fiction with fact so inevitably some liberties have had to be taken even though they may upset purists, but this film has to entertain as well as inform so this is inevitable. There is humour, too, and the odd crack at Washington’s expense, or expanse. The book is a good read, but I fear the price is rather on the steep side which may put people who might otherwise buy it off doing so.