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Where Apples Fall
Theresa ( Tree) Waller-Bridge raised Isobel, Phoebe and Jasper, all making their names in the creative industries.
Ms Phoebe Waller-Bridge is up there in the firmament of superstars. The prize-winning writer and actress has the world at her feet.
Ubiquity creates the illusion of familiarity. Her cutting-edge series, Fleabag, is thought by many to be confessional and revelatory, a peep show. Fleabag’s mother is dead. She is present as an absence. Phoebe’s real mum is very much alive and pretty special. Her three children are superbly creative and talented. These three ripened on quite a tree- Tree Waller-Bridge the subject of this chapter.
Back in the late 70s, Tree and I worked at a private English language school and became unlikely friends. She was six foot tall and resourceful, I, short and unruly. She’d grown up in South Africa; I was raised in Uganda. They had rumbustious lunch parties when Isobel ( Iso), Phoebe and Jasper would tear around, speaking in strange tongues. Their father Michael had his own, zany pursuits. Tree was unflappable and terrific fun. We lost touch and reconnected in 2019.
Iso, who did music at Edinburgh University and the Royal Academy, is considered as one of Britain’s ‘most exciting composers.’ [1] She’s written scores for TV productions including Vanity Fair, Black Mirror and Fleabag, and has signed a deal with Decca records. Iso and David Schweitzer were acclaimed for their soundtrack in the 2020 film version of Emma. They interweaved opera, hymns, instrumental music and English folk songs. It was unforgettable.
Phoebe did drama at her sixth form college and got into RADA. Tree, when young, had been rejected by drama school because of her height. (Apparently Vanessa Redgrave had already filled the ‘tall woman’ gap.) Jasper was keen on history, but the music world beckoned, and he happily followed the call. A manager and producer, he’s worked with Louis Tomlinson of One Direction, Jamie Cullum, and James Arthur amongst others.
God, Tree is proud of them: ‘Hell Yes! They’re intelligent, warm and personable. They have a social conscience and are kind. And, they all have a fabulous sense of humour.’[2]
A portrait of Phoebe taken by the New York photographer Dylan Coulter, shows her to be a near-replica of her mother’s younger self. Both have the same strong features, dark intense eyes, beauty not friable or delicate, but dense and deep. Jasper is dark too, easy, beguilingly mysterious. Iso, lithe and poised, has her father Michael’s light hair and blueish eyes.
Tree says Iso came out of the womb crying perfectly in tune; Phoebe making large gestures, and Jasper listening intently. Music and drama were in the blood on both sides. Tree’s mother, Bunny, a music student, was pulled out Oxford after the family discovered the girl was sleeping with her music professor. Michael learnt to play the guitar proficiently at the age of 40. His mother, Jill, trod the boards in repertory theatre.
Tree was born and raised on a small farm near Cape Town: ‘We had a bunch of cattle, two sheep, two horses and a few ducks and geese. We supplied the local neighbourhood with unpasteurised milk in a pony and trap. It was idyllic’
However, behind the good life there were shadowy goings on, reminiscent of Out of Africa, the 1937 novel by the Danish-Kenyan writer Karen Blixen: ‘My father was handsome, charming, but hopeless. My mother was formidable. She had a lover who lived with us from Monday to Friday, and my father was on the other side of the landing!’ When Tree eventually asked her father how he put up with it, he replied, ‘Sweetie, he was my best friend’. Her parents did, eventually, divorce. Then there was the maternal grandmother, a young widow with children, who took over her husband’s small newspaper business and turned it into one of the leading publications in the country. Tree comes from a line of doughty, idiosyncratic females.
At 18, she left South Africa and made her way through Europe learning languages and doing jobs ranging from nannying in Austria, to farming tomatoes and working for the Minister of Movement in Spain, ‘not the bowel movement, but transportation’. The stories would make a sparkling picaresque novel.
In 1972, she arrived in London and felt instantly at home. She met the fiercely intelligent Michael, a physicist and holographer. They married in 1981. Iso was born in 1984, Phoebe in 1985 and Jasper in 1987. Those years were, they all say, vibrant and stimulating.
When the girls were in their teens, Tree found an advert in a newspaper for a six week course at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She and Michael encouraged Iso and Phoebe to apply. They both got in. These were first vital steps.
By 2004, the marriage was over. They were, recalls Tree, ‘deeply shaken, but we were going to march on. The expectation was I would move into a one bedroom flat. Well, no. My children needed a family house. I took out a massive mortgage, carried on working and stuffed the place with lodgers. It was tight but I made it work. Phoebe and I even shared a bed at one time!’ For Iso, ‘Having that house was everything. There was loads of mum time, lots of wine as we went through ups and down’. Tree is intuitive and smart. Jasper was smoking furtively so she asked him to come smoke at the table. They talked, had laughs, played tricks on each other in their fun palace in Wandsworth. In Jasper’s words ‘Mum just knows instinctively when something is up and she is always right. For years, one of us was always living there. And we were jealous of the one who was.’ After Phoebe’s marriage broke up she moved in with Tree, not for weeks, but a whole year: ‘Mum scooped me up, like she’s done for all of us’. Tree is also credited for their artistic successes.
Phoebe and her close friend, the brilliant writer Vicky Jones, decided to showcase new theatrical works in a rundown pub in London’s east end. The early ideas for DryWrite were germinated around Tree’s kitchen table. One of those was Fleabag. The show got to Edinburgh, and they never looked back. Phoebe says: ‘Mum is at the heart of everything that’s gone well. Vicky and I would pour out all our ideas to Mum. She watches the first cut of everything I ever make. She has that one killer note. I’ve reshot scenes because of her feedback. She’s my secret weapon.’
Iso’s too: ‘Even through the most experimental phases of making music, Mum was always front row. She’s been on the whole journey.’ Tree describes one avant-garde Iso gig when, ‘in a pair of tiny hot pants and wellington boots she climbed inside the grand piano and plucked the strings all through the concert. She is a phenomenal mum’
I interviewed Phoebe before her one woman show in London’s West End. In her dressing room, she opened champagne and pulled out snacks from the small fridge which scattered across the floor. Very Fleabag! She smiled and the room lit up: ‘Mum really deserves credit. We were all tearful when she told us you wanted to write this. She deserves a moment in the sun after working so hard to help us grow.’
Tree is rarely seen in glam mags or on red carpets. This is her moment in the sun. I expect she will step into it wearing a hat and shades and not linger too long.
Chapter from my new book Ladies Who Punch published by Biteback 2020.
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