PRIZES to win! PROMOTIONS
Born in Manchester and educated at Oxford, John Heilpern wrote award-winning interviews for the Observer before becoming a Times columnist in New York. He has worked with Peter Hall at the National Theatre and with Michael Bennett on Broadway. He is the author of a classic book about the theatre, Conference of the Birds- The Story of Peter Brook in Africa, and of How Good Is David Mamet, Anyway - Writings on Theatre and Why it Matters. He now lives in Manhattan where he is drama critic of the New York Observer.
[Heilpern] writes with infectious verve, championing the plays against carpers and cavillers, and showing how close they were to their creator's raw experience. Above all he celebrates Osborne's cross-grained vitality. His book brings a flesh-and-blood human being back from the shades, shouting, like Jimmy Porter 'Hallelujah! I'm alive!' -- John Carey Sunday Times His biography is surely a model of its kind: tightly written, vivid, witty, knowledgeable and with a seamless, and often moving, interweaving of the past and present -- Craig Brown Mail on Sunday An enjoyable, exhaustive, well-researched and highly readable biography -- Michael Arditti Independent Heilpern has produced a riveting biography - Heilpern orchestrates his complex narrative with flair and contrives to invoke affection in the face of bad behaviour...judicious and dependable -- Valerie Grove The Times Osborne has found his ideal biographer John Banville
