Andrea Mann

Andrea Mann is a Screenwriter and Freelance Writer based in London

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Happy New Year

01.01.2021 by Andrea // Leave a Comment

As always, I trust Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts to give the best life advice. And as we enter a year that is hopefully better than the annus horribilis we just went through, I’ll be trying to remind myself of Snoopy’s four testaments above. Something tells me they’ll be more useful than ever.

And: serious congratulations on getting through the year we just did. Forget writing The Next Great American (Or Indeed British) Novel, signing That Deal or getting Fit And Fabulous: I think that simply reaching the end of 2020 with our lives/relationships/marbles even vaguely intact is a triumph. A triumph, I tell you. So, well done us! We made it! And that’s all we needed to do.

My heart goes out to everyone who, like my family, lost loved ones in 2020. It was an incredible year for reminding us of what’s important in life, I think. And for recognising the privileges that so many of us have and yet often take for granted: things like our health, paid work, a safe home, family and friends who care for us. I’m especially grateful to those are out there helping the most vulnerable in our communities – whether as frontline workers, volunteers or simply people looking out for their neighbours. It may have been a devastating, bleak year in so many ways, but as well as highlighting the difficulties and inequalities in our society it also shone a light on the best of our humanity, too.

So here’s to 2021, and to looking after ourselves and each other as we face its challenges. I wish you all a happy, loving and successful year ahead – whatever that looks like for you <3.

Categories // Blog

Westminster Council needs a strategy to help save our live arts sector

06.10.2020 by Andrea //

I have written to Westminster City Council’s Cabinet Members for culture and business, asking the Council to urgently devise a specific strategy to help our live arts sector during this unprecedented time.

Westminster is the home of West End theatres, historic concert halls, world-class live music venues and more. This live arts sector is now facing an existential crisis due to the pandemic – and we can’t just stand by and watch it collapse.

This is what I wrote:

[Read more…]

Categories // Blog

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing

04.16.2020 by Andrea //

Barrie Mann – 1936-2020

On Tuesday, we said goodbye to our Dad. Just eight of us, separated into our little family units. I’m so grateful we each have our little family units.

The trees and the cherry blossom in the crematorium grounds were bursting with joy and colour – pink, white, all shades of green. The birdsong from outside could be heard throughout the service, through the open doors. The sky was – as a favourite songwriter of mine (yes, Bruce) says in a song about life continuing after sadness and tragedy – “still the same unbelievable blue”.

I’m not religious, so had to do a bit of research before finding a suitable passage for the vicar to read. When I found Ecclesiastes 3 1:8 – which I’m sure you’ll all know, whether through the Bible or through the Pete Seeger/Byrds song Turn! Turn! Turn! – it seemed completely appropriate. For our dad, for us kids, for all of us seeing the glorious spring and beginings of summer out there through our windows and in our gardens and parks, and being reminded that the earth keeps turning, that our feelings keep changing, that there is a time and a season for everything. And what is a funeral during a pandemic if not ‘a time to refrain from embracing’, eh… ?

[Read more…]

Categories // Blog

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