Ransom

The context of Ransom is decidedly convoluted and although prior knowledge in Greek mythology is not necessary, it would help to cement the vast connections between mortals and gods in this epic exploration.

Malouf piggybacks off the ancient story of the Iliad by the great writer Homer, who lived between 850-1130 BC. In Book 24 of Homer’s epic poem, a few lines are given to a moment where the Trojan King Priam visits the enemy camp and begs for the body of his son, who had died earlier. He begs to the warrior Achilles, who slayed Hector (Priam’s son) and the old King is said to have successfully appealed to the soldier and therefore the body was relinquished so that the proper burial rites might be conducted.  A moment is captured in the epic battle between the Greek armies, led by Agamemnon of Mycenae and Priam, and his Trojan army; Malouf moves heroic action aside for contemplation and inner turmoil. His awakening of the one-dimensional characters concreted in myth and legend is a refreshing angle; the richly textured world that Priam experiences on his way to Achilles’ camp is sensuous and filled with a banality that surprises him. Upon release, there was an overwhelmingly positive response to the novel that Malouf was taken aback by and he later attributed this response to the fact that the novel ‘presents itself very simply as a story’, and any need for prior understanding is rendered unnecessary by Malouf.

The Queen 

The Queen is set in 1997, nearly a decade before the film was actually released, and centres around the British Royal Family’s response to the sudden death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Lady Diana Spencer married Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son Charles in July of 1981. Despite the fairy tale romance, the heir to the throne was ten years older than the Lady Diana and the marriage was an unhappy one. Amidst a myriad of marital issues, both Diana and Charles’ fidelity was under intense scrutiny by the media and the pressure soon became too much. The marriage disintegrated and the two divorced in 1992. Diana lost the title of Her Royal Highness, Princess of Wales. The couple had two sons: William Arthur Phillip Louis Windsor (born 1982) and Henry Charles Albert David Windsor (born in 1984).

Five years after the separation, Princess Diana was in France with her then lover Mr Dodi Fayed (the son of an Egyptian billionaire) when, hounded by the paparazzi, they got into a Mercedes S-280 and sped from the Ritz Hotel where they had been staying together. At half-past midnight, the vehicle crashed into a pillar in a tunnel under the Alma Bridge in Paris. Mr Fayed and the driver Mr Henri Paul died on impact. The princess died from her injuries in a nearby hospital a few hours after the collision.

Investigations were carried out by both French and British constabulary and authorities concluded that the driver, Mr Paul, was responsible for the crash; he had been drinking and this, in conjunction with anti-depressants that he had taken, contributed to him losing control of the vehicle. In addition to this, six months after their deaths an inquest jury at the Royal Courts of Justice in London returned verdicts of unlawful killing, the equivalent of manslaughter. They surmised that the paparazzi who pursued the car so vehemently, and its driver, were to blame for the crash, naming it ‘gross negligence’.

When the news of the death of Princess Diana, undoubtedly one of the most famous women in the world, broke upon a shocked and disbelieving British public, the Queen (Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) retreated behind the walls of her private residence, Balmoral Castle, with her family. She seemed unable to comprehend the public response to the tragedy, a hysterical outpouring of grief and anger.

For the newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the people’s need for reassurance and support from their leaders was palpable. As the unprecedented outpouring of emotion grew ever stronger, Blair had to find a way to reconnect the Queen with her people, not just the British public, but an entire world in mourning.