Front Row

With an outstanding introductory essay, one of the greatest living English novelists has assembled her writings, essays and reviews about the theatre to provide a highly individual view of contemporary theatre and actors. The incredible range of Beryl Bainbridge's talents is known to her most fervent admirers. As well as being one of Britain's most acclaimed and biggest selling novelists, she is also an artist, a former actor and, in recent years, an accomplished theatre critic. As well as starting her life in the arts as an actor, appearing in rep and early episodes of Coronation Street, she wrote for years a column for the Standard, often touching on theatrical matters, and most recently writes for The Oldie as their theatre critic. The book contains fascinating insight into the work of people like Alan Bennett, Alan Rickman and Ronald Harwood. There are delightful little sketches of the actors and actresses Bainbridge worked with in the early years-including Judith Chalmers. Here is a book to enchant Beryl Bainbridge's countless fans and, through the lengthy autobiographical introduction, to give new insight into the imagination of a creative genius.