Arguments with England

In the days when Australians called England 'home', Michael Blakemore, an eager young man en route to RADA, made the long sea voyage to 1950s London to find himself in a distinctly foreign country . . . And so began his struggle to come to terms with the realities of a less than perfect Promised Land.



Candid observations about life and art, from his shock on witnessing the poverty in the North to his sense of excitement on reading the works of Proust and Webster, sit beside colourful escapades at drama school and recollections of working with characters such as John Osborne and Tyrone Guthrie. Rescued from the horrors of weekly rep by an exhilarating tour behind the Iron Curtain in Peter Brook's Titus Andronicus with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, Blakemore recalls life as an actor before his directorial success with A Day in the Death of Joe Egg propelled him to the National Theatre and the start of a glittering career.

About the Author :
Michael Blakemore arrived in the UK from Australia in 1950 and his first fifteen years in the theatre were spent as an actor. During this period he wrote his novel about an actor's life, Next Season. He began directing at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre and his first London success, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, transferred from there. Laurence Olivier then asked him to become an Associate Director of the National Theatre.



His work has embraced new plays by dramatists as diverse as Arthur Miller, David Hare, Peter Schaffer, Don DeLillo, David Mamet and David Williamson. He directed four of Peter Nichols' early successes, and the premieres of seven plays by Michael Frayn. His most recent productions are Democracy and Three Sisters.

Review :
"'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"