Acting is glamorous, and everyone wants to direct, but what about the most vital ingredient of all - the script? In this unique and compelling collection of interviews, Alistair Owen explores the often overlooked role of screenwriting. From Billy Elliot to James Bond, and from Notting Hill to Beverly Hills, ten leading British writers reveal the tricks of - and the truth about - the screen trade. Rupert Walters (Restoration), Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), Richard Curtis (Notting Hill), Frank Cottrell Boyce (Welcome to Sarajevo), Neal Purvis & Robert Wade (Die Another Day), Shawn Slovo (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), William Boyd (Chaplin), Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove), Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) 'I look forward to reading more volumes from Owen that will match this fascinating, insightful collection' Christopher Fowler, Independent on Sunday
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.
