The greatest plays of Terence Rattigan (1911-77) - including The Browning Version, The Deep Blue Sea, Separate Tables and The Winslow Boy -are now established classics. There have been regular revivals of his work, including recent productions in the West End, at Chichester Festival Theatre and by the Peter Hall Company, which makes the first paperback edition of Geoffrey Wansell's acclaimed biography particularly timely. From the heady days of Rattigan's early success to the darker days of his decline in popularity, Wansell paints a captivating portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest theatrical lights.

Geoffrey Wansell is vice president of the Terence Rattigan Society: www.theterencerattigansociety.co.uk

'Sympathetic and grippingly enthusiastic... Geoffrey Wansell movingly evokes a warm-hearted, courageous man' - Jonathan Cecil, Evening Standard

'Perceptive and lavishly documented' - London Review of Books

'Takes you as close to Rattigan as you are likely to get' - John Gross Sunday Telegraph