{"product_id":"9781780019048","title":"Diaries 1969-1977","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe playwright Peter Nichols has been a compulsive diarist all his life. He writes for himself alone, responding to an urge to record the daily doings, private and professional, of his family, his fellows - and himself. The resulting diaries are candid, insightful, and often as shockingly funny as his plays.\u003c\/p\u003e\r \r \u003cp\u003eThis selection, republished to mark the playwright's 90th birthday, covers the extraordinarily fruitful period between his first real hit, \u003cem\u003eA Day in the Death of Joe Egg\u003c\/em\u003e, to the stirrings of his masterpiece, \u003cem\u003ePassion Play\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\r \r \u003cp\u003eAs the seventies dawn, Peter Nichols is watching \u003cem\u003eJoe Egg\u003c\/em\u003e being filmed - and hating it. His next play, \u003cem\u003eThe National Health\u003c\/em\u003e, is doing good box office for Olivier's National Theatre - but Olivier is hating it. And \u003cem\u003eForget-Me-Not Lane\u003c\/em\u003e is shortly to open at the new Greenwich Theatre amid much anxiety. And then there are three small children (and a fourth in long-term hospital) to cope with, an extended family and the renovation of a tumbledown barn in rural France.\u003c\/p\u003e\r \r \u003cp\u003eWhat emerges is one of the most revealing and hilarious accounts of a writer's life, and how – whatever success comes along – everyday life will keep getting in the way. As Nichols attempts to negotiate the world he has found himself in – a world populated by the likes of Albert Finney, Kenneth Tynan, Stephen Sondheim, Michael Frayn and John Osborne – he finds that he is never free from having to entertain his in-laws or cope with children vomiting in the back seat.\u003c\/p\u003e\r \r \u003cp\u003eNichols' \u003cem\u003eDiaries\u003c\/em\u003e are a brilliantly funny, acerbic study of theatrical life, a warts-and-all portrait of parenthood, and a fascinating companion to that remarkable decade, the Seventies.\u003c\/p\u003e\r \r \u003cp\u003e'Sometimes he says terrible things that strike home to one's heart' \u003cem\u003eMichael Frayn\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hern, Nick Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47131311014128,"sku":"9781780019048","price":12.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781780019048_p0.jpg?v=1763710845","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781780019048","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}