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Behind the Scenes
My biography Behind the Scenes: The Dramatic Lives of Philip Burton is now
out.
Published by Parthian Books, May 2025. Hardback £25.
Behind the Scenes unfolds the extraordinary life story of Philip Burton (1904-95), a stage-struck man whose life virtually spanned the twentieth century and crossed continents. Education was his passport from an impoverished, troubled childhood in the South Wales valleys. He emerged as an erudite schoolmaster in Port Talbot, dedicated to inspiring his pupils to value drama and Shakespeare in particular. The most famous of the many young people whose lives he changed over two decades of teaching was Richard Jenkins. As the film 'Mr Burton' shows so powerfully, he trained and transformed his pupil into the legend that was Richard Burton. Time and again in later life the actor would seek advice from his mentor and erstwhile guardian. Philip Burton possessed many dramatic skills. He was an actor, playwright and scriptwriter. In 1945, when the wireless was at its height, he became a full-time and pioneering BBC features producer. His productions included Dylan Thomas's Return Journey. He was responsible for almost 200 radio programmes, working in Cardiff, then London. He even wrote the first 'soap' for television.
Long fascinated by America, in 1954 he emigrated to the United States where he was a theatre director and ran the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, a prestigious New York stage school where he inspired countless budding actors. He spent his final decades in Key West, Florida, writing books and still delivering the sparkling lecture recitals on Shakespeare that had earlier enthralled audiences right across the States.
Philip Burton is also the subject of the 2025 feature film 'Mr Burton' starring Toby Jones. Angela was an adviser for this film.
War, Journalism and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century
Angela’s book War, Journalism and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century: The Life and Times of Henry W. Nevinson is now available in paperback, published by Bloomsbury (ISBN: 9781350382060).
See too:
Spring’s Green Shadow
Introduction to the Honno Press reprint of Cecily Mackworth’s novel, Spring’s Green
Shadow, first published in 1952. The new paperback edition (also available as an ebook)
published in February 2022 is in the Honno Press Welsh Women's Classics series. The novel
is set in Wales and Paris.
