Winston Graham's memoirs have been consigned to his safe for years. Now he is ready to share them with his readers: 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, who turned Graham's best-selling novel, Marnie, into a classic film, 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 is a life of success, often excess, yet he never loses 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 creative challenges of adapting for the screen, Memoirs of a Private Man offers an insight into the unassuming side of the writer whose best-selling novels and their television adaptations have won over the hearts of millions.
