How it began
Like millions of people around the world over the past fifty years, I have been fascinated by the movie JAWS and its star, Robert Shaw (my uncle). I grew up listening to the laugh-out-loud stories that Robert, my mother (Joanna Shaw), and my grandmother (Doreen Avery Shaw) would tell. Show Me The Way To Go Home is their story.
More recently, I embarked on a journey with my mother: we spent hundreds of hours discussing Robert and the Shaw family, including their childhood in Orkney and Cornwall, their adult years in London and New York, and the ways in which they shaped each other’s lives. Joanna knew Robert better than any person, living or dead. She is the reason Robert was nominated for a Tony Award, and he is the reason she went back to school for her PhD. They were as close as any brother and sister could be.
In telling this story, I have used the same techniques that I learned from them: rather than describe their entire life, I have focused on a few defining events. Rather than gloss over those events, I have filled in details and crafted dialogue to capture how they talked, how they thought, and what they saw.
I never heard anyone laugh as much as Robert and Joanna when they were together, especially when they were talking about their childhood homes. In telling this story, I have tried to find my own way home, and to capture some of the joy they felt in life.
- Chris Myers