Quentin Crisp

by Tim Fountain

Fountain paints his story agaisnt the backdrop of Crisp's colourful and controversial life and sheds some light on the intriguing events leading up to his death. It is a compelling portrait of man who Fountain calls a 'great, glittering contradiction': a man who flaunted his sexuality at a time when the penalty for buggery was gaol, a man whose very name epitomised style and yet lived alone in abject poverty in a room he refused to clean and a man who confidently declared at the height of the AIDS epidemic that he 'didn't believe it existed'.

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Tim Fountain is an author, playwright and occasional performer. His books include the number 1 best selling ibook Rude Britannia (Weidenfeld and Nicholson), Quentin Crisp: a biography (Absolute Press) and So you want to be a playwright? (Nick Hern Books). He is currently working on his first novel.

His plays include Queen of the Nile (Hull Truck) Dandy in the Underworld (Soho Theatre) Sex Addict (Royal Court and Schaubuehne, Berlin) Resident Alien (Bush and New York Theatre Workshop, also broadcast on BBC Radio 3), Julie Burchill Is Away, Hotboi and How To Lose Friends and Alienate People (Soho Theatre) featuring such actors as Jack Davenport, Bette Bourne, Jackie Clune, and Con O Neil. He has also written for television and radio and was a principal writer on Bob and Margaret (Channel Four/Comedy Central, USA).

Tim has also written journalism for amongst others the Guardian, Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, New Statesman and Attitude magazine.

An regular broadcaster Tim has appeared on Newsnight, Women’s Hour, Saturday Review and Loose Ends on BBC Radio Four and Weekender on BBC Radio 2. He has also presented a documentary about the death of Quentin Crisp for Channel Four and featured in the BBC 2 documentaries Circumcise Me and Am I Normal?

Tim is also a teacher of playwriting and has tutored for numerous organizations including The Central School of Speech and Drama, The Arvon Foundation and MIT in the USA. He was Literary Manager of the Bush Theatre from 1997 - 2001 and a lecturer in creative writing at Strathclyde University from 2006-2009.

Reviews

[Natalie Bayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a huge Crisp fan, I was always going to find something of interest in this bio. While the start disappointed me with its huge chunks of verbatim quotes from Crisp’s ‘The Naked Civil Servant’ (which I’ve already read) as the bio progressed there were new insights and bits of information that were new to me.

I think I this well written bio would be an ideal read for someone who knows nothing of Crisp or, paradoxically, someone who thinks they know everything and is prepared to skim through a great deal of old material to find nuggets of new.