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The authorized biography of one of the most influential and colourful behind-the-scenes figures in the British theatre since the war. As an agent, 'Peggy' nurtured the talents of several generations of writers, among them, John Arden, Edward Bond, David Hare, Stephen Poliakoff and Caryl Churchill.
List of contents
Foreword1 Under African SkiesRoots - Parents - Birth - Childhood - Education - Marriage2 If It's Tuesday, It Must Be MacbethIn England - Separation - Touring Opera - Acting - Bill Roderick - Bristol Old Vic - Q Theatre - Becoming an Agent3 Opening GambitStarting Out - First Year - John Holmstrom - Peter Hall and Waiting for Godot - Eugène Ionesco - Robert Bolt4 Iron In The SoulNew Landscape - John Osborne - Ann Jellicoe - John Mortimer - Peters and Ramsay - Michael Codron - Michael Meyer - The Arts Theatre - James Saunders - Charles Wood - Henry Livings - Northerners - Alan Plater - David Mercer - David Rudkin - Peter Nichols - Alan Ayckbourn5 Tie Ruffian On The StairFrank Marcus - Joe Orton - Kenneth Halliwell6 Queen BeeIndependence - Attempted Takeovers - In Brighton - In the Office - Visiting Peggy - Views on Talent, Writers, Partners, Sexuality - Jean Rhys7 At CourtChristopher Hampton - the Royal Court - George Devine - William Gaskill - Oscar Lewenstein - Edward Bond - Caryl Churchill - Max Stafford-Clark8 For the Love of TalentSubsidised Theatre - Commissioning - Hampstead Theatre Club - RSC and NT - the Fringe - Steve Gooch - Censorship - Anti-Apartheid - Mustapha Matura - Martin Sherman - John McGrath - John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy - Willy Russell - Stephen Poliakoff - Wallace Shawn - David Hare9 Memento MoriIllness - Last Years - Death of Bill Roderick - Fire - Peggy's Death - New Firm - Foundation - Tribute"NotesList of Clients
About the author
Colin Chambers is Emeritus Professor of Drama at Kingston University. Colin was Literary Manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1981 to 1997, and has also been a journalist and theatre critic. He is co-author with Richard Nelson of Kenneth's First Play and Tynan (both Royal Shakespeare Company), and he selected and edited for performance Three Farces by John Maddison Morton, which were produced at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond. As well as editing the Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre, Colin has written extensively on the theatre including Other Spaces: New Writing and the RSC, Playwrights' Progress (with Michael Prior), The Story of Unity Theatre, Peggy: The Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent (winner of the inaugural Theatre Book Prize), Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company, Here We Stand: Politics, Performers and Performance - Paul Robeson, Isadora Duncan and Charlie Chaplin and Black and Asian Theatre in Britain: A History. Peggy to Her Playwrights: The Letters of Margaret Ramsay, play agent was published to critical acclaim in 2018.
