The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The Harold Pinter double bill of plays by the acclaimed playwright, praised for his social commentary and satire, opens with A Slight Ache. First performed in the nineteen fifties, the drama opens with a ubiquitous pause before an innocuous scene is played out between...
Ivan Menchell, can I first just congratulate you on the critical and commercial success of the show. It takes a village of course, but you and the village must be justly proud. What initially attracted you to the story of Bonnie & Clyde - and then how did you...
The story of Bonnie and Clyde has been told in plenty of books (some more salacious than accurate it seems). Interest in the colourful criminals was revived through the superb 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (there is also an underrated film called...
Richard Foreman, Firstly, can you tell us about Never Surrender? Never Surrender is the third and final title in a series of books which I've curated. Each collection contains novellas and short stories linked to series I've written. As I mentioned in the introduction...
Augustus: Son of Rome, about the young Octavius Caesar journeying to Rome after hearing of his great uncle’s assassination, was your breakthrough book. It was a huge hit on kindle, leading a wave of other novelists to score hits in the genre and period. Can you tell...
A play within a play. A nod towards music hall theatre. A Wilde evening, with a subtle and suitable amount of smut. The Canterville Ghost is the perfect tonic for cheering up an audience which may be as gloomy as the weather at the moment (especially those who have...
The Hope Theatre has staged a coup in hosting the first UK production of Jen Silverman's The Moors. The play may be bizarre in places, but it is never dull. Phil Bartlett directs the show with ingenuity and precision. The play toys with certain tropes of 19th century...
Richard Foreman, Besieged is the second book in your fabulous The First Crusade series, could you tell us a little about it and what inspired you to write them? After finishing of the Spies of Rome series I decided to return to the medieval period, having enjoyed...
You’ve written quite extensively on ancient Rome, beyond the two short tales set in Rome in The Die is Cast. There's the Sword of Rome, Sword of Empire and Augustus Caesar series, to name a few; what has attracted you most to write about this period? Fundamentally,...
From the beginning of Turpin’s Prize, Foreman’s aim is clear. The very first scene shows his skill at creating a twist, which can be seen throughout the book, when it becomes clear that Dick Turpin is not the highwayman chasing the coach. Instead, Turpin is a...
