Winston Mawdsley Graham - Memoirs of a Private Man

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From his Autobiography, Pan MacMillan (www.panmacmillan.com) ISBN 1 4050 3374 6

"I have always been more interested in other people than myself - though there has to be something of myself in every character created, or he will not come alive…."

With more than forty novels to his name, writer Winston Graham, creator of the celebrated "Poldark" series, at last found the opportunity to turn his pen to that subject he found least attractive: himself. Consigned to his safe for years, the result is a remarkable book, free of what he calls 'the fashionable sins', but rich in charm and anecdote.

"Memoirs of a Private Man" follows the rise of a delicate Manchester lad from the isolation of Cornwall and creative anonymity to writerly fame and the glittering London film scene. Its pages are peopled by luminaries, among them Alfred Hitchcock, Gregory Peck and Somerset Maugham, and by a vivacious circle of friends, many of whom have found their way as characters into Graham's novels. His was a life of great success, yet he never lost sight of its foundations : his love of his wife Jean, companion of fifty years, and his love of words. From musings on his philosophy of writing to the challenges of adapting for the screen, "Memoirs of a Private Man" offers an insight into the unassuming side of the writer whose bestselling novels and their TV adaptations have won over the hearts of millions.

Equally at home in the distinguished company of the Savile Club, in Henry Cooper's gym on the Old Kent Road or in bed with his wife in his coat and fur hat, Winston Graham had a gift for telling stories that are by turns witty, eccentric and intimate. Fans of his novels will be thrilled not only to know more about their genesis and inspiration, but also to meet the private man behind them, and to come away feeling as if they had spent an evening reminiscing in his delightful company.