HAMPTON ON HAMPTON

‘A lot of my plays begin as comedies and mutate in the course of the evening, because my instinct is that you have to welcome the audience in and make sure they’re sitting comfortably before you can give them an adequate punch on the jaw.’

Since his acclaimed first play in 1966, Christopher Hampton has amassed over 50 credits in theatre, film and television. From his best-known play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, to personal and critical favourites like Total Eclipse and Tales from Hollywood; from his films as writer-director (Carrington) to his work as screenwriter-for-hire (The Quiet American), Hampton eloquently and entertainingly discusses a career which puts him among Britain’s most prominent but least predictable playwrights.

Praise for Hampton on Hampton

‘A series of interviews . . . that amounts to an artistic autobiography. Intellectually intimate, unpretentious, informative, entertaining, anecdotal, fearless, funny, serious, an addictive page-turner, one of the great memoirs’ Craig Raine, Observer, Books of the Year

‘A hugely enjoyable book. Droll and very intelligent, but also highly informative about the making of plays and films, and more or less essential reading if you want to know what a writer does and feels’ Richard Eyre

‘These beguiling interviews, full of humour and intelligence, are reminders of the wide imaginative range of Christopher Hampton’s work both in film and the theatre. I have no doubt that he will be ranked as one of the finest dramatists of the twentieth century’ Michael Holroyd

‘I was so taken with it that I couldn’t stop until I got to the end. Interesting, well-informed and provocative questions, and amazingly articulate, informative and characteristically intelligent answers’ Michael Frayn

‘An engaging examination of the writer’s craft, Hampton’s musings benefit enormously from some especially well-pointed questions from interviewer Alistair Owen, whose knowledge of his subject is refreshingly thorough’ Howard Maxford, Film Review

‘An absorbing study of the dramatist’s work . . . Owen’s lucid examination explores not only the intricacies of Hampton’s career, but also the inner workings of the writer’s mind . . . His pointed enquiries elicit remarkably frank, and often hilarious, responses’ Lindsay Pfeffer, Observer