FCC club dinner with Sarah MONKS

Introducer: Sarah MONKS
God daughter of Richard HUGHES

Topic: Documentary Screening: A Richard HUGHES film – “You only Live Twice – the incredibly true story of the HUGHES family”

On the anniversary of the birth of the legendary foreign correspondent and infamous China watcher, Richard HUGHES (born March 5,1906), this documentary takes us on an intimate, whirlwind journey through the ages, revealing the complexities and duality within this prodigiously talented, eccentric maverick clan who have pursued their passions on the world stage. Along the way, a dazzling array of friends and colleagues weigh in on this remarkable and highly entertaining story, including iconic satirist Barry HUMPHRIES, jazz legend Graeme BELL, international best-selling author John LE CARRE and acclaimed filmmaker Chris DOYLE.

This is a generational odyssey bristling with exceptional talent, music and performance. Where myth and reality become inseparable. Where truth is often found in fiction. Part fable and part adventure story. This 55-minute film, written and directed by Brendan YOUNG, produced by Ruth CULLEN, is a loving, breathless celebration of the artistic spirit in all its wildly outrageous and entertaining splendor.

Sarah MONKS was fortunate to have had Richard HUGHES, an admired friend of her war correspondent father Noel, as an attentive godfather from earliest memory. HUGHES’s larger-than-life presence in Hong Kong was a major reason why she came to the then British Crown Colony in 1978 to join the South China Morning Post. It was the era of The Honourable Schoolboy and she could have had no finer introduction to the FCC than “old Craw”, the incomparable character Le Carre fashioned from “His Grace” Richard HUGHES.