Tim Fountain

The story of one of Soho's most colourful characters, the painter and dandy Sebastian Horsley.

How to write a play and get it produced - a manual for playwrights. Playwright and former literary manager Tim Fountain guides the budding playwright over the many hurdles involved in getting a play on - from finding a story that only you know, through the detailed construction of the play, and on to the strategies you can use to get it on stage. • What kind of play do you want to write? • Where do you get your ideas from? • How much exposition do you need? • Where do you find your characters' voices? • What should you do when you get stuck? • Where should you send your play? The book also deals with the actual production: choosing directors, designers and actors, and coping with rehearsals, previews and press nights. Includes appendixes of vital websites, and contact details for new-writing theatres, agents and publishers. 'A marvellous and invaluable guide... full of wisdom and no-nonsense practical advice on the tricky but thrilling business of making plays' Willy Russell

A one-woman show based on the life and writings of the provocative columnist, writer and broadcaster, Julie Burchill. Set in Burchill's barely furnished Brighton house, with its bust of Lenin and heated outdoor pool, Julie Burchill Is Away invites us to spend a little time with this notorious – and curious – figure, who has been variously described as 'the cleverest woman in Britain' (Radio Four) and 'Britain's worst mother' (Daily Mail). Tim Fountain's play, written with the active co-operation of its subject, was first staged at Soho Theatre, London, in 2002. 'Who would want to see this play? Every freak and loser in town' Julie Burchill

The acclaimed one-man show based on the life and writings of Quentin Crisp. Tim Fountain's monologue play Resident Alien: Quentin Crisp explains it all was first staged at the Bush Theatre, London, in November 1999 in a production directed by Mike Bradwell and starring the legendary Bette Bourne. It transferred to New York Theatre Workshop in 2001, where it played a three month sell-out season and won two OBIE awards. The show won a Herald Angel at the Edinburgh Festival and has enjoyed sold out runs across America, Australia and the UK. It has also been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Tim Fountain came to know Quentin Crisp intimately during the last year of his life whilst researching his stage play about him, Resident Alien. Crisp died before he got a chance to see the play. Here he tells the story of that year; looking at the life and lasting legacy of one of the wittiest and most controversial figures of the last century, and shedding light on the intriguing events leading up to his death. It is a compelling portrait of what Fountain calls a 'great, glittering contradiction': a man who flaunted his sexuality at a time when the penalty for homosexual activity was jail, a man whose very name epitomized style, yet who lived alone in abject poverty in a room he simply refused to clean, and a man who confidently declared at the height of the AIDS epidemic that he didn't believe it existed.

"From his overcrowded and famously filthy East Village apartment, England's most famous ex-pat wit is waiting to tell you how to be happy." "As he awaits the arrival of the mysterious Mr Brown and Mr Black, the 91-year-old Professor of Style expounds his own unique vision of the world. He gives us his personal recipe for self-fulfilment as he dissects life, the twentieth century and subjects as diverse as Princess Diana, Oprah Winfrey and oral sex."--BOOK JACKET.