From Withnail and I to Thomas Penman, the inimitable, outrageous and unforgettable writer and director in conversation... 'I've sometimes thought in the dead of night, "Look at your life, Bruce, rip out the writing, and with all these boiling frustrations and opinions what would you be?" I'd be in trouble, wouldn't I? Or I'd be in jail...' Hard-talking, boisterous, frank and forthright, Bruce Robinson reveals to Alistair Owen the truth about his work and life in a series of exclusive interviews. Talking candidly about his entire career; his acting, writing and directing, and the many tussles he has faced with Hollywood moguls, this is Bruce Robinson as you've never seen or heard him before. 'The most purely likeable book about cinema I have ever read. Robinson talks about his profession in a way that is astonishingly clear-headed, funny and wise' David Hare, Guardian, Books of the Year
Author
Alistair Owen is the author of the acclaimed SMOKING IN BED: CONVERSATIONS WITH BRUCE ROBINSON (one of David Hare’s Books of the Year in the Guardian), STORY AND CHARACTER: INTERVIEWS WITH BRITISH SCREENWRITERS, HAMPTON ON HAMPTON (one of Craig Raine’s Books of the Year in the Observer) and THE ART OF SCREEN ADAPTATION: TOP WRITERS REVEAL THEIR CRAFT. He has written original and adapted screenplays and stage plays, including feature film and TV collaborations with screenwriters Rupert Walters and Jeremy Brock; he has contributed filmmaker interviews to Creative Screenwriting, film book reviews to the Independent on Sunday and film reviews to Time Out; and his first novel, THE VETTING OFFICER, is available on Kindle. Alistair has chaired Q&A events at the Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and London Screenwriters’ Festival; he has hosted a series of Zoom interviews on screen adaptation in association with Creative Essentials and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain; and his platform with Christopher Hampton in the Lyttelton Theatre to celebrate Faber’s 75th anniversary was published in the anthology FABER PLAYWRIGHTS AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE. His next non-fiction book is THE MIRROR AND THE ROAD, an exclusive series of interviews with bestselling author and screenwriter William Boyd, due to be published by Penguin in November 2023 and available to pre-order now.
