About Adrian Wright
Adrian’s 2020 books are
CHEER UP!
British Musical Films 1929-1945
WHAT THE SPECTATOR SAID:
‘Adrian Wright’s excellent book … A solid measure of his success is that he consistently makes you want to see the films themselves [with his] deep knowledge of and obvious affection for his subject … One of the chief pleasures is his deadpan dismissal of those found wanting.’
WHAT THE OPERETTA RESEARCH CENTER SAID:
‘Very highly recommended. Adrian Wright’s book has certainly cheered me up. It is invaluable for anyone who has an interest in films, musicals and operetta.’
and his new Francis and Gordon Jones mystery novel
FORGET ME NOT
A mystery is begun in Lyons Corner House when innocent Ethel Braund meets blowsy singer Belle Elmore and mistakenly leaves with Belle’s handbag. Fifty years later, a company of pensionable music-hall artistes is brought together on Cromer Pier for a last hurrah. In a novel inhabited by a host of colourful characters, against a background of echoing music-hall songs, Francis and Gordon Jones unravel a story of illusion, murder and remembrance
‘Told with sly humour and a genuine warmth … a wonderful evocation of a lost theatrical age’ The Bookhound
§
Writer, novelist, playwright, biographer and author of several books on British musical theatre, actor and singer, Adrian’s childhood was spent dressed in white satin. He frequently slipped out of his pram.
BIOGRAPHIES
His first biography, of Sylvester Stallone, was published in 1990, followed by others of Kevin Costner and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A bridge was crossed when he was commissioned to write the biography of L P Hartley, of The Go Between fame. A shock to the establishment (a ‘serious’ biographer who had failed the 11-plus) Wright was described in the Evening Standard as ‘a chorus boy’. The novelist Francis King indignantly informed the Evening Standard that ‘Adrian Wright is nothing like a chorus boy, unless it be in Oklahoma!’.
The Hartley biography, Foreign Country, was followed by biographies of John Lehmann (A Pagan Adventure) and the composer William Alwyn (The Innumerable Dance). He has written for the Dictionary of National Biography, provided notes for the BBC Proms, and reviewed for several journals including the London Magazine and Gay Times.
BRITISH MUSICAL THEATRE
Adrian is considered an expert on British musical theatre. His three books on the subject - A Tanner’s Worth of Tune: Rediscovering the Post-War British Musical; West End Broadway: The GoldenAge of the American Musical in London and Must Close Saturday: The Decline and Fall of the British Musical Flop - are regarded as standard works. These have garnered praise such as ‘invaluable’ from the leading US specialist in musical theatre Steven Suskin, ‘consistently entertaining’ (Spectator) and ‘rewarding’ (TLS). In November 2018 the lead review in the Spectator described his work as ‘hugely entertaining’.
FICTION
Adrian’s first novel, Maroon, was published in 2010. He currently writes the Francis and Gordon Jones mysteries series, The Voice of Doom followed by The Coming Day (published November 2018). His latest Francis and Gordon mystery is Forget Me Not, set in 1910 London and 1950s’ Norfolk, and published in 2020.
“I so enjoy writing the Francis and Gordon Jones books. They were inspired by a favourite radio series of the BBC Childrens’ Hour, Norman and Henry Bones, based on the stories of Anthony Wilson. Francis and Gordon are adolescent cousins living in Norfolk in the 1950s, eager to solve mysteries that the local police have given up on. Wilson’s Norman and Henry were meant for children to enjoy; Francis and Gordon are for adults to appreciate. I like to think The Bookhound is right in describing the books as ‘brilliantly funny, deliciously wicked and thoroughly enjoyable’.”
‘Adrian Wright’s books bring a freshness and originality to the British detective story’ Ark bokhandel
