British actor Ben Miller, better known for starring roles in the hit series Death in Paradise, Bridgerton and Paddington 2, has been in Romania to promote his children’s books.
The 57-year-old actor who has turned his hand to writing for youngsters in recent years, signed books for young and not-so-young fans on Tuesday at the Carturesti Verona bookstore in Bucharest.
It wasn’t just book promotion that brought Miller to Romania, but solid business combined with personal links _ and a love of folklore.
“My first royalty cheque came from Romania,” he told a small group. “My books were doing well and blossomed into this trip.”
There are already plans to get the busy and versatile actor to return and visit pretty parts of the country to promote tourism (and inspire future books).
During lockdown, the actor did an interview with a Romanian teenager which became popular on the internet and the young man invited him to visit. A connection with British diplomat Chris Frean in Morocco, also during lockdown, helped the visit materialise after Frean moved to Bucharest.
At his book signing on Tuesday evening, Miller chatted with youngsters, who were excited to meet the famous actor as the book crowd took photos on their smart phones.
The 30-minute session went on longer than scheduled as more fans poured in (Bucharest is notorious for its traffic) and the actor and his hosts were late for his next appointment_ dinner at Lacrimi si Sfinti (Tears and Saints), a good place for hearty Romanian cuisine.
Although celebrated in the UK and abroad for roles such as DI Richard Poole in Death in Paradise, Miller’s three-day visit to the Romanian capital focused on his children’s books which were inspired by the father-of-three’s own children, allowing him to spend more time at home and less on set.
“We are showcasing the best of British,” Frean told Universul.net
Andrei Boncea, Romania’s leading film producer (now working on ‘Yellow Tie’ about the life of Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache) who has worked with Miller; Ian Tilling who runs Casa Oana for homeless women, and Shajjad Rizvi founder of Little People children’s cancer charity were at the dinner. So was Veronica Schmidt who shared with Miller her children’s book Cheep and Chirp that she wrote with her daughter Ann-Kathrin as well as French journalist Yves-Claude Llorca, a massive fan of Death in Paradise, a British-French co-production filmed on the fictional St. Marie that goes as ‘Meutres au Paradis’ in France.
The first part of his visit was spent at several English schools near Bucharest. “He talked about his books to 7-14 year-olds, and also told them about drama and acting,” Frean said.
Romanian publishing house Pandora has translated his first book ‘The Night I met Father Christmas’ into Romanian ‘Noaptea în care l-am întâlnit pe Moș Crăciun, and ‘The boy who made the World disappear (Băiatul care a făcut lumea să dispară) in 2021.
The erudite Miller who studied natural science and solid state physics at Cambridge University is also interested in Romania’s rich folklore and traditions which inspire fairy tales across Europe.
“I have a huge interest in folklore and the folk world that springs from folk tradition, filtering through the filter. There is huge interest … in the untouched country which has extraordinary biodiversity. I’m very keen to come back,” he said.
The son of two English teachers, Miller is fascinated by fairy tales from Eastern and Western Europe and how they intertwine to form stories. He mentioned the Slavic Baba Yaga, an ogress who steals, cooks, and eats her victims, usually children and lives in a forest hut that spins continually on birds’ legs, Beowulf and King Arthur.
His latest books published by Simon & Schuster in the UK are The Night We Got Stuck in a Story and Once Upon a Legend. His best-selling book is ‘The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale.’
