Customer Reviews

Kenneth Tynan: A Life

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You need chutzpah to review a book about one of the greatest reviewers of all time, but what the hell! Let's get the grotty stuff out of the way - Mr Shellard does not resile from the personal as we learn this bastard Englishman Kenneth Peacock Tynan had an irritating stutter, developed a taste for sado-masochistic sex, was a wife beater, who smoked three packs a day and was a wildly attractive personality who was on a first name basis with Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams. The real interest in Mr Tynan was his influence in helping shape the emergence of some of the greatest theatre of the last century and his legacy of writing associated with that mission - and mission it was. He knew what moved him in the theatre and he was fearless in letting all and sundry know about it. This meticulously researched biography is naturally of special interest to drama teachers, theatre lovers etc but it also sets much of the action within the context of the post war malaise in Britain, the Suez crisis, Vietnam and so forth. It also illuminates the role of the Lord Chamberlain and the stifling censorship which shackled so much British theatre until the likes of Mr Tynan took up the cause. Well worth a read.