The Art of Invective
Selected Non-Fiction 1953-1994
Dennis Potter author John Williams editor Ian Greaves editor David Rolinson editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:12th May '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A comprehensive selection of Dennis Potter’s non-fiction writing, spanning his television criticism, political columns, lectures and radio talks.
A comprehensive selection of Dennis Potter's non-fiction writing, spanning his television criticism, political columns, lectures and radio talks.Dennis Potter (1935-94) was Britain’s leading television dramatist for almost thirty years and remains an inspiration to today’s programme makers as a result of such ground-breaking work as Pennies from Heaven, Blue Remembered Hills and The Singing Detective. But he also engaged with his audience through reviews, journalism, interviews, broadcasts and speeches. The Art of Invective, the first collection of its kind, brings together some of his finest non-fiction work. Published to mark 80 years since Potter’s birth, this book includes his merciless television columns, penetrating literary criticism and angry writings on class and politics, as well as his sketches for Sixties satire shows including That Was the Week That Was. From Frost-Nixon to Coronation Street, David Hare to Doctor Who, Orwell to Emu, this collection shows Potter’s distinctive voice at its entertaining, thought-provoking and uncompromising best.
If he'd worked in the theatre he'd have been the Shaw of our day. He would have been that substantial. It remains a scandal that because you worked in television, you are somehow downgraded. You don't belong in that high category of high art. Well, Dennis does if anybody does. * Trevor Griffiths *
As the British Film Institute celebrates the life and work of 'the writer who redefined TV drama', Oberon Books, with perfect timing, offers this collection of Potter's critical abuse in journalism and interviews at its most constructively eloquent. The Art of Invective essentially complements Humphrey Carpenter's magisterial biography and all those DVDs of the plays that can still galvanise what Potter called 'the palace of varieties in the corner of the room'. He believed that television, with its vast, all-inclusive audience, was a potentially powerful means of promulgating true democracy... stingingly vitriolic invective... merciless pungency. * The Spectator *
ISBN: 9781783192038
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 502g
488 pages