From Publishers Weekly
Often shifting "without warning from gadfly to nanny, from shepherdess to prophetic sphinx, from temptress to termagant," play agent Ramsay was a charismatic presence in British theater for 25 years. Her keen sense of literary talent was to influence the careers of such playwrights as Eugene Ionesco, Joe Orton, John Mortimer, David Hare and Caryl Churchill. She even played a minor role in the successes of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, neither of whom she represented. With Ramsay's approval, Chambers, literary manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company, interviewed more than 200 of her acquaintances and clients for this book but examined only cursorily her upbringing in South Africa, her early failed marriage to Norman Ramsay and her relationship with actor Bill Roderick, her longtime companion. Most of her private life is passed over quickly in favor of a tiresomely sequential account of Ramsay's involvement in the careers of her more illustrious clients--an account filled with name-dropping and flights of overblown language. This biography should interest anglophiles and those in the theater world, but its appeal could have been broadened with a deeper analysis of the progression of British theater in the 20th century and a more thorough examination of Ramsay's maddening character. Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Peggy Ramsay, the influential British play agent who nurtured several generations of Britain's most important playwrights, was one of the most unforgettable individuals of the English-speaking theatre in this century.

Best known for the part she played in Joe Orton's career and immortalized by Vanessa Redgrave's portrayal of her in the film Prick Up Your Ears, Peggy Ramsay had a prodigious list of clients that included Eugene Ionesco, John Mortimer, Robert Bolt, Christopher Hampton, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Howard Brenton, David Hare, Willy Russell and Alan Ayckbourn. A legend in her own lifetime, Peggy was feared and loved in equal measure.

Her refusal to spend money on her office, her employees or herself was more than mere eccentricity; it was a credo - her writers came first and last. When she died a millionaire in 1997, all the money went into a foundation to encourage writers, much as she had encouraged and bullied them when she was alive.

Given Peggy's blessing, Colin Chambers was granted complete freedom of access to all the records and correspondence accumulated over the forty years of her agency's existence, including hundreds of impassioned letters between Peggy and her authors. He has also benefited from the willing cooperation of her clients and has delved deeply into her early life, bringing to light a good many new and surprising aspects of this multifaceted woman whose ability to nurture talent is unlikely to be equaled for many a decade.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Peggy Ramsay, the influential British play agent who nurtured several generations of Britain's most important playwrights, was one of the most unforgettable individuals of the English-speaking theatre in this century. Best known for the part she played in Joe Orton's career and immortalized by Vanessa Redgrave's portrayal of her in the film Prick Up Your Ears, Peggy Ramsay had a prodigious list of clients that included Eugene Ionesco, John Mortimer, Robert Bolt, Christopher Hampton, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Howard Brenton, David Hare, Willy Russell and Alan Ayckbourn. A legend in her own lifetime, Peggy was feared and loved in equal measure. Her refusal to spend money on her office, her employees or herself was more than mere eccentricity; it was a credo - her writers came first and last. When she died a millionaire in 1997, all the money went into a foundation to encourage writers, much as she had encouraged and bullied them when she was alive. Given Peggy's blessing, Colin Chambers was granted complete freedom of access to all the records and correspondence accumulated over the forty years of her agency's existence, including hundreds of impassioned letters between Peggy and her authors. He has also benefited from the willing cooperation of her clients and has delved deeply into her early life, bringing to light a good many new and surprising aspects of this multifaceted woman whose ability to nurture talent is unlikely to be equaled for many a decade.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Often shifting "without warning from gadfly to nanny, from shepherdess to prophetic sphinx, from temptress to termagant," play agent Ramsay was a charismatic presence in British theater for 25 years. Her keen sense of literary talent was to influence the careers of such playwrights as Eugene Ionesco, Joe Orton, John Mortimer, David Hare and Caryl Churchill. She even played a minor role in the successes of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, neither of whom she represented. With Ramsay's approval, Chambers, literary manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company, interviewed more than 200 of her acquaintances and clients for this book but examined only cursorily her upbringing in South Africa, her early failed marriage to Norman Ramsay and her relationship with actor Bill Roderick, her longtime companion. Most of her private life is passed over quickly in favor of a tiresomely sequential account of Ramsay's involvement in the careers of her more illustrious clientsan account filled with name-dropping and flights of overblown language. This biography should interest anglophiles and those in the theater world, but its appeal could have been broadened with a deeper analysis of the progression of British theater in the 20th century and a more thorough examination of Ramsay's maddening character. (Mar.)

Booknews

Written by the literary manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company, this biography relates the exploits of an influential member of the British theater community. Her clients included the writers Joe Orton, Eugene Ionesco, John Mortimer, Robert Bolt, Edward Bond, and Alan Ayckbourn. She was also involved romantically and professionally with Samuel Beckett, and was involved with the first staging of . Chambers draws on the records of her agency and 40 years' worth of correspondence between Ramsay and her writers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

John Mortimer