Garry O'Connor | |
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 Garry O'Connor, writer | |
| Born | 31 January 1938 Edgware, London, England |
| Education | St Albans School, Hertfordshire King's College, Cambridge |
| Genre | Biography, fiction, plays |
| Relatives | Cavan O'Connor (father) Rita O'Connor, née Odoli-Tate (mother) Contents
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Garry O'Connor (born 31 January 1938) is an English playwright, biographer and novelist. [1]
Born Edgware, London, England, Garry O'Connor is a biographer and novelist, noted for his publications on theatrical and literary figures.
Son of Cavan O'Connor, Irish tenor, BBC broadcasting star and variety artist, [2] [3] and Rita, also a singer, maiden name Odoli-Tate, O'Connor is the grand-nephew of Dame Maggie Teyte DBE, Croix de Lorraine, Chevalier, Legion d'Honneur, the international opera soprano and interpreter of French song, and of James William Tate, songwriter, accompanist, and composer.
Educated at St Albans School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was an Exhibitioner and State Scholar, and won the James Essay Prize, O'Connor was President of University Actors. He was taught at Cambridge by Professors Boris Ford and John Broadbent, with George Rylands as his Director of Studies, where O'Connor concentrated mainly on directing and writing plays. He is an MA of King's College.
After Cambridge, winning a French Government scholarship to Paris for drama, he studied mime at the École Jacques Le Coq in Paris before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company as Michel Saint-Denis' assistant. This was during the Peter Hall seasons at Stratford Upon Avon. Thereafter he directed plays in London and elsewhere until becoming a full-time writer.
On 25 June 1970 he married Victoria Meredith-Owens, a farmer and yoga teacher. They have six children and six grandchildren. His home is in King's Sutton, Northamptonshire.
O'Connor directed his own version of Jonson's Catiline in the Stratford Studio, with Roy Dotrice, Janet Suzman, and directed Jean Tardieu's The Keyhole at the Aldwych Theatre. He directed the 1965 London premiere of Alun Owen's A Little Winter Love at Stratford East ('directed by Garry O'Connor with almost the psychic speed of communication that there can be about jazz': Penelope Gilliatt, Observer); [4] [ better source needed ] devised and directed A John Whiting Evening, premieres at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, and productions at RADA, the London Drama Centre, and Webber-Douglas School. He also read plays for the RSC and translated plays from French for the RSC, and later for the National Theatre in Olivier's regime.
O'Connor was the first Resident Dramatist and Appeals Director of the Hampstead Theatre Club. He has had eight of his own plays produced, among them: I Learnt in Ipswich How to Poison Flowers (1969), at the Arts Theatre Ipswich, directed by Nick Barter; [5] [ better source needed ]The Musicians (Mercury Theatre, London, 1970), in which Tom Conti made his first appearance on a London Stage; and Semmelweis at the Edinburgh Festival (1976).
His Dialogue Between Friends at the Open Space was based on his involvement with Arnold Wesker's controversial The Friends, staged at the Roundhouse in 1970. His book Darlings of the Gods was adapted as a three-part mini-series for Thames Television and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1991, and was filmed in Australia. More recently Campion's Ghost, adapted from his novel about John Donne, was performed on Radio 4 (1997), with Paul McGann and Timothy West in the leading roles. He has also written and presented features for Radio 3, and acted as consultant on BBC 1 documentaries on Laurence Olivier and Pope John Paul II, appearing in the latter. After the death of Pope John Paul II, O'Connor appeared on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost on 3 April 2005. [6]
In the early 1960s O'Connor wrote a short Daily Mail Charles Greville column, and then became television critic for Queen Magazine 1965–66, succeeding Sir Angus Wilson. He contributed to the Financial Times as its Paris arts correspondent when he lived in Paris, and as a full-time London daily critic (1966–73), regularly writing also for Plays and Players, Theatre Quarterly , the TLS and other periodicals. He has reviewed books and written features, conducted interviews for the Times, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday and other newspapers.
O'Connor's first book, French Theatre Today, came out in 1976, followed by his first biography, that of his great-aunt, Dame Maggie Teyte (1979), and many more biographies followed; his most recent being Ian McKellen: The Biography (2019). Many have garnered praise and positive reviews; a few have provoked controversy. He is perhaps best known for his theatre biographies - including two of Alec Guinness; Paul Scofield; Ralph Richardson; as well as two books on William Shakespeare, these being his personal favourites and probably his most controversial works (see review citations in the Bibliography below for contemporary critical appraisal). He wrote a controversial biography of Tony and Cherie Blair (The Darlings of Downing Street, 2007), dividing critics from the political right and the left,[ citation needed ] and also wrote biographies of Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI. His 1997 biography of Peggy Ashcroft provoked a storm of anger and controversy within the British Press, with attacks from Harold Pinter, Lord Jeremy Hutchinson, and Labour politician Gerald Kaufman. The book was defended by former Labour Party leader Michael Foot. (Links to press articles in the Bibliography below.)
Some of O'Connor's works have been translated into other languages, including Polish and Swedish.
French Government Scholarship for Drama; Oxford Experimental Theatre Club, Oxford, 1st Prize in 1974 for I Forget How Nelson Died; Arts Council bursaries for plays I Learnt In Ipswich How to Poison Flowers and Epitaph For a Militant; Arts Council Literature Award, 1979; often cited in Books of the Year by The Times, Sunday Times, Observer.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a novella about the life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping, written by English writer James Hilton and first published by Hodder & Stoughton in October 1934. It has been adapted into two feature films and two television presentations.
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career, and played more than sixty cinema roles. From an artistic but not theatrical background, Richardson had no thought of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft in the 1920s with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1931 he joined the Old Vic, playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company, a series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and on Broadway.
Elizabeth Dilys Powell was a British film critic and travel writer who contributed to The Sunday Times for more than 50 years. Powell was known for her receptiveness to cultural change in the cinema and coined many classic phrases about films and actors. She was a founding member of the Independent Television Authority (ITA), which launched commercial television in the UK. She was also the second female president of the Classical Association. Powell wrote several books on films and her travels in Greece.
Stella Dorothea Gibbons was an English author, journalist, and poet. She established her reputation with her first novel, Cold Comfort Farm (1932) which has been reprinted many times. Although she was active as a writer for half a century, none of her later 22 novels or other literary works—which included a sequel to Cold Comfort Farm—achieved the same critical or popular success. Much of her work was long out of print before a modest revival in the 21st century.
Sir Robert Graham Stephens was a leading English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. He was one of the most respected actors of his generation and was at one time regarded as the natural successor to Laurence Olivier.
Never Send Flowers, first published in 1993, was the thirteenth novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam.
The Facts of Death, first published in 1998, was the third novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright—the final James Bond novel to do so—it was first published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam.
High Time to Kill, published in 1999, is the fourth novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. This is the first James Bond novel copyrighted by Ian Fleming Publications. It was published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam. The novel's working title was A Better Way to Die.
The Man with the Red Tattoo, first published in 2002, was the sixth and final original novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming's character James Bond. Carrying the Ian Fleming Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam. It was later published in Japan in 2003. The novel's working title was Red Widow Dawn.
Edmund Dulac was a French-British naturalised magazine illustrator, book illustrator and stamp designer. Born in Toulouse, he studied law but later turned to the study of art at the École des Beaux-Arts. He moved to London early in the 20th century and in 1905 received his first commission to illustrate the novels of the Brontë Sisters. During World War I, Dulac produced relief books. After the war, the deluxe children's book market shrank, and he then turned to magazine illustrations among other ventures. He designed banknotes during World War II and postage stamps, most notably those that heralded the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.
Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, it was opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. The smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989.
John Connolly is an Irish writer who is best known for his series of novels starring private detective Charlie Parker.
Claude Voilier was a French teacher, journalist, translator, and a prolific author, having written over 600 short stories for various French magazines, and about 400 stories for children. In the English-speaking world, she is best known for her continuation of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five series of children's adventure novels.
Allie Esiri, formerly Allie Byrne, is a British writer/poetry curator and former stage, film, and television actress.
Ian Francis Kelly is a British writer and actor. His works include historical biographies, stage and screenplays.
Andrew Annandale Sinclair FRSL FRSA was a British novelist, historian, biographer, critic, filmmaker, and a publisher of classic and modern film scripts. He has been described as a "writer of extraordinary fluency and copiousness, whether in fiction or in American social history".
James Anthony Bowen is an English author based in London. His memoirs A Street Cat Named Bob, The World According to Bob and A Gift from Bob, written with Garry Jenkins, were international best-sellers. A film based on the first two books was released in 2016 and a sequel was released in 2020. Bowen now dedicates his time to helping numerous charities that involve homelessness, literacy and animal welfare.
Frank Gale Pedrick-Harvey, known professionally as Gale Pedrick, was an English writer, journalist, scriptwriter, and broadcaster.
Soul Survivor is a spiritual autobiography by Philip Yancey, a prominent Christianity Today columnist. With the subtitle How My Faith Survived the Church, the book was published in 2001 by Doubleday, which marketed it as a mainstream book. A five-hour-long, three-audio-cassette audiobook edition read by Yancey was also released that year with the same subtitle. In the United Kingdom, the book was published by Hodder & Stoughton with the subtitle Searching for Meaningful Faith. Random House published a paperback edition in 2003 with the subtitle How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church.
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