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Dateline: 5th May, 2009

Morley Prize Winner Announced

A mixture of theatre and book people gathered at the Garrick Club is not unusual, given the membership of that establishment, but this morning (Tuesday 5th May) they were in the elegant Milne room for a very special occasion: to hear the winner of the Sheridan Morley prize announced.

The prize was established last year by Morley's widow, critic Ruth Leon, to commemorate the writer, critic, dramatist, presenter and sometime director and peformer by the presentation of an award for the best theatre biography published in the previous year.

Looked down on by a full-length portrait Sheridan's grandmother, Gladys Cooper and a roomfull of historical theatrical figures, James Hogan of Oberon Books, who act as organisers of the prize opened the proceedings by welcoming the guest and introducing Ruth Leon who talked of her aims in establishing the prize, speaking of Sheridan and of the books he wrote which are a lasting reminder of him and of her wish to keep his name alive through this prize. She had led a panel of judges that consisted of last year's winner of the prize, the director Dominic Dromgoole, actress Patricia Hodge, long a friend of the Morleys' and the former publisher turned literary agent Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson.

Outlining the criteria that the judges had applied to their deliberations Ruth said first the book had to be readable, then it had to be both informative and entertaining and finally it had to be something of lasting value. Their shortlist, which all amptly matched these criteria, had been narrowed down to four titles which she and the other judges went on to speak about individually.

• Bloomsbury Ballerina by Judith Mackrell (Weidenfeld) is a biography of dancer Lydia Lopokova which took her from St Petersburg to London and gave a picture not only of the ballet world but of the world of Bloomsbury intellectuals and politicians of her husband Maynard Keynes.
• Apprenticeship by Peter Gill (Oberon) is a memoir based on a diary from a time when the director and playwright was an actor in Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle at the RSC. From these past records he lets his thoughts cover many aspects of theatre since in a compact by fascinating book that the judges each seem to have read at a sitting.
• Arthur Miller by Christopher Bigsby (Weidenfeld) is a biography of the great American playwright that is pact with information, especially in its picture of the time of Senator McCarthy.
• A Strange Eventful History by Michael Holroyd (Chatto) is a portrait not only of the lives of Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry but also of their children: the Irving sons and Terry's actor and designer son Gordon Craig and his sister the director and producer Edith Craig. Gordon Craig comes over as a monster, but one that makes you want to know even more about him.

Of all these fine books which would get the accolade? Returning to announce the winner Ruth declared it to be Michael Holroyd for A Strange Eventful History and the very worthy winner came forward to accept the award - appropriately he'd been standing below a painting of Ellen Terry in a scene from The Merry Wives of Windsor responding briefly with great modesty for it is a book of considerable achievement.

The prize is a cash award of £2000.

Howard Loxton

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©Peter Lathan 2009