Robert Bolt

by Adrian Turner

After serving in the RAF during World War II, studying at Manchester University and teaching, Robert Bolt became a playwright, first for BBC Radio, then for the stage. He found fame with A Man For All Seasons , and though writing only seven produced screenplays earned a global reputation as a screenwriter. His films include Lawrence of Arabia , Dr Zhivago , Ryan's Daughter and The Mission . Adrian Turner has studied film and television archives, interviewed many of those who knew Robert Bolt, and been granted unprecedented access to hundreds of letters written by his subject. He has drawn upon his sources with the impartiality of a good historian, seamlessly interpolating the letters and interviews into an narrative which is at once psychological study, family saga, social history, and portrait of the workings of the theatrical and film worlds. The accounts of unproduced plays and films are as absorbing as those of the West End and Hollywood successes. Bolt's struggle to write again after a stroke in 1979 is recounted with an unsentimental clarity, and is the more moving for it. This impressively comprehensive, scrupulously even-handed and impeccably documented biography is both an engrossing read and a valuable document of a significant modern writer. -- Gary S. Dalkin

560 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mick Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting enough read,covering the author/directors writing career.covers his first stirrings as a writer in theatres and the for film.also his turbulent marriage to Sarah miles,and his relationship with David lean who comes across as a bit of an arse.who knows how his career would have panned if it were not for I'll health and beset by family problems.a difficult enough job being a writer without the extra baggage.give it a try.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhaustive and exhausting.This 500 page autobiography covers just about every facet of the eventful life of Robert Bolt.fRom committed communist to champagne socialist.If I had a criticism it would be that the book is overlong and could easily loose 50+100 pages.After all there is one chapter devoted to the drug troubled life of his son Tom,which could easily have been deleted

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turner provides a long, detailed, but incomplete portrait of his subject. Its main demerit is Turner giving Bolt's movie work much more emphasis than his radio and stage endeavors. He's best conveying Bolt's personal side: Bolt's preaching socialism while indulging material comforts, his ambivalent attitude towards film, his rocky marriage to Sarah Miles and his long, painful recovery from a stroke.