Arguments with England

Michael Blakemore arrived in the UK from Australia in 1950. He spent fifteen years as an actor before directing at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre. He became Associate Director of the National Theatre under Olivier, and directed him in, among others, Long Day's Journey into Night. He has directed new work by dramatists as diverse as Arthur Miller, Peter Nichols, Michael Frayn, David Hare, Peter Schaffer, Don DeLillo, Woody Allen and David Mamet. At the 2000 Tony Awards he won an unprecedented double as Best Director of both a play, Copenhagen, and a musical, Kiss Me Kate. He has written and directed two films, and is the author of the novel, Next Season. His memoir, Arguments with England finishes where Stage Blood begins.

"'This beautifully written book by the director Michael Blakemore puts most such volumes to shame. It is full of both sharp insights and sudden shafts of wisdom. Often wonderfully funny, it is also touching and painfully honest. By the time you have finished Arguments with England, the author feels like an unusually wise and sympathetic friend: Sunday Telegraph 'Some of the most exhilarating writing about theatre ever committed to paper, a beady and original analysis of Britain (and incidentally British theatre) in the '50s and '60s, a profound account of the evolution of modern Australia, and a darkly frank one of the inner life of its author. His arguments with England are in the end arguments with himself, but they are utterly engrossing.' Simon Callow, Guardian"