Leigh Lawson – författare

Numbered limited edition print run of 250.Director and screenwriter Billy Wilder said, on his 92nd birthday, “Ithink I wasted my eighties.”Motivated by Wilder’s disclosure as he approached his own eighthdecade, actor, director, and writer Leigh Lawson embarked on a quest toassemble some of his previously unpublished poems, written during anastonishing 60-year career.     This captivating first collection is accompanied by a background offascinating memories, intriguing stories, and anecdotes from around the time ofeach poem’s appearance.Sometimes very funny, sometimes alarmingly moving, Now and Then is the extraordinaryjourney of a life from poverty and abuse to achievement and fulfilment,throughout which poetry has played a major role.

Director and screenwriter Billy Wilder said, on his 92nd birthday, “Ithink I wasted my eighties.”Motivated by Wilder’s disclosure as he approached his own eighthdecade, actor, director, and writer Leigh Lawson embarked on a quest toassemble some of his previously unpublished poems, written during anastonishing 60-year career.     This captivating first collection is accompanied by a background offascinating memories, intriguing stories, and anecdotes from around the time ofeach poem’s appearance.Sometimes very funny, sometimes alarmingly moving, Now and Then is the extraordinaryjourney of a life from poverty and abuse to achievement and fulfilment,throughout which poetry has played a major role.

A passionate clear-sighted look at the day-to-day life of a working actor, The Dream follows Leigh Lawson as he performs with the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking a brief excursion to America to appear in a Coward double-bill. Invited by the RSC to play both Oberon and Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he navigates his way through the separate difficulties posed by each role, survives the first night at London's Barbican, and returns to Stratford upon Avon, the scene of many of his childhood escapades and the source of his love affair with the theatre.The book draws the reader inside the mind of an actor: his fears and reveries; his pragmatism and superstition; his shifting feelings about rehearsals and performances, and the oddities of audiences.Vivid, warm-hearted and perceptive, The Dream will delight everybody with an interest in the theatre.