Terence Frisby will speak at the Sentinel Literature Festival 2010 on his book Kisses on a Postcard published by Bloomsbury. Terence is best known as an actor and playwright. His most famous play and film is There’s A Girl In My Soup, London’s longest-running comedy and a worldwide smash hit.

Kisses on a Postcard, about his childhood as an evacuee in WWII, published in hardback last autumn, is an account of that war, and of the community where he lived, seen through the eyes of a displaced boy, as the world destroys itself round him. It is, above all, a tribute to the extraordinary couple who gave him and his brother a rich childhood while suffering their own tragedy. It includes examinations of pacifist views propounded in the middle of a war being fought for our survival; it questions the role of authority and God and subverts the sexual morality of the day. All these basic ideas are put before us and the boy, growing up in a remote hamlet in Cornwall. It is proving to be loved by readers everywhere.

The book seems to be developing a life of its own which has surprised even the author and publisher. Since the launch of the hardback there have been three reprints. The Daily Telegraph gave it an enthusiastic review on publication. Then, out of the blue, Internet book sites and bloggers took it to their hearts and have given it unanimous five-star reviews. It was top of Lovereading’s Christmas list and is Random Jotting’s Book of the Year. The paperback, on sale from the end of May, will coincide with the seventieth anniversary of Dunkirk.

Terence, an excellent performer, has spoken at many book and theatrical events with previous plays and publications. You can access all interviews, reviews and much other information via the website www.kissesonapostcard.com Just follow ‘the Book’.

This story has got a life in three mediums. It started as a Radio 4 play, winning the Giles Cooper award and was repeated no less than ten times by the BBC. The Drama Dept described it as ‘The most popular play for a generation.’

Following that it was successfully tried out as a stage musical at the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple. BBC Radio Devon said quite simply that it was ‘the best production I have ever seen at the Queen’s Theatre.’ It is currently being set up for the West End.

All of which demonstrates that Terence has plenty to talk about that will interest booklovers. Audiences have already been riveted to learn of the creative process from play, to musical, to book.

 

Terence Frisby’s most famous play, There’s A Girl In My Soup, was London’s longest-running comedy (six and a half years)1966-1972 and a worldwide smash hit with long runs on Broadway, in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Sydney, Rome, Vienna, Prague and many other places. It is still constantly produced across the globe.
His script for the equally successful film, which starred Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn, won the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award in 1970 for the Best British Comedy Screenplay.

His other stage plays include The Subtopians (Arts Theatre 1964), The Bandwagon (Mermaid 1969), It’s All Right If I Do It (Mermaid 1977), Seaside Postcard (Young Vic 1978) Rough Justice (Apollo 1994) Funny About Love (two UK national tours 1999-2000). All his plays are published by Samuel French and are regularly performed worldwide.

He has also written many plays for television, two of which were nominated for awards. His comedy series include Lucky Feller with David Jason (1976) and That’s Love (1988-92), which won the Gold Award for Comedy at the 1991 Houston International Film Festival.

His radio play, Just Remember Two Things: It’s Not Fair And Don’t Be Late for BBC Radio Four, on which Kisses On A Postcard is based, won The Giles Cooper Play Of The Year Award and achieved some sort of record by being broadcast ten times in a few months on Radio 4 and BBC World Service. A musical stage version of his radio play was produced at the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple in 2004.

Terence has worked extensively for nearly 50 years as actor, director and producer. He has played leads and directed in the West End and all over the country.

His favourite presentations were the South African, multi-award-winning Woza Albert at the Criterion Theatre in 1983, subsequently off-Broadway and worldwide, and the record-breaking UK Tours of Once A Catholic and The Real Inspector Hound, which double-billed with his own one-act play, Seaside Postcard.

His first book was Outrageous Fortune, an autobiographical story. Terence is currently writing a novel and Diary Of A Grandfather.

Come to Sentinel Literature Festival on October 30th 2010 to hear Terence talk about Kisses on a Postcard.