Writing Home and Untold Stories Box Set

New
Paperback
2007
$31.20

Writing Home brings together Alan Bennett's diaries for 1980-1995, with reminiscences and reviews, the diary he kept during the production of his very first play, Forty Years On, which starred John Gielgud, together with hilarious accounts of his many television plays, notably An Englishman Abroad and A Private Function. At the heart of the book is The Lady in the Van, the true account of Miss Mary Shepherd, a homeless tramp who took up residence in Bennett's garden and stayed for fifteen years. From his now-legendary address at Russell Harty's memorial service to recollections of growing up in Leeds,Writing Home gives us a unique and unforgettable portrait of one of England's leading playwrights. Untold Stories contains new unpublished diaries, as well as a poignant memoir of his family and of growing up in Leeds, together with his much celebrated diary for the years 1996-2004,and numerous other exceptional essays, reviews and comic pieces. Since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s Alan Bennett has delighted audiences worldwide with his gentle humour and wry observations about life. His many works include Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, Talking Heads, A Question of Attribution and The Madness of George III. Bennett's most recent play, The History Boys, opened to great acclaim at at the National in 2004, and is winner of the Evening Standard Award, the South Bank Award and the Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play. It came to Sydney in March 2006 and was also made into a hugely successful feature film.

Synopsis

Writing Home brings together Alan Bennett's diaries for 1980-1995, with reminiscences and reviews, the diary he kept during the production of his very first play, Forty Years On, which starred John Gielgud, together with hilarious accounts of his many television plays, notably An Englishman Abroad and A Private Function. At the heart of the book is The Lady in the Van, the true account of Miss Mary Shepherd, a homeless tramp who took up residence in Bennett's garden and stayed for fifteen years. From his now-legendary address at Russell Harty's memorial service to recollections of growing up in Leeds,Writing Home gives us a unique and unforgettable portrait of one of England's leading playwrights. Untold Stories contains new unpublished diaries, as well as a poignant memoir of his family and of growing up in Leeds, together with his much celebrated diary for the years 1996-2004,and numerous other exceptional essays, reviews and comic pieces. Since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s Alan Bennett has delighted audiences worldwide with his gentle humour and wry observations about life. His many works include Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, Talking Heads, A Question of Attribution and The Madness of George III. Bennett's most recent play, The History Boys, opened to great acclaim at at the National in 2004, and is winner of the Evening Standard Award, the South Bank Award and the Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play. It came to Sydney in March 2006 and was also made into a hugely successful feature film.

$31.20

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 1328
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 05 Nov 2007
ISBN 10: 0571240461
ISBN 13: 9780571240463

Author Bio

ALAN BENNETT has been one of our leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for stage including Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, The Madness of George III (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George), and an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. At the National Theatre, London, The History Boys won numerous awards including Evening Standard and Critics' Circle awards for Best Play, an Olivier for Best New Play and the South Bank Award. On Broadway, The History Boys won five New York Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critcs' Circle Awards, a New York Drama Critics' Award, a New York Drama League Award and six Tonys. The Habit of Art opened at the National in 2009. His collection of prose Untold Stories won the PEN/Ackerley Prize for autobiography, 2006. Recent works of fiction are The Uncommon Reader and Smut: Two Unseemly Stories.