... Bringing home local drama COMPILED By PETER HEPPLE Right Royal: Wakefield Theatre 1776-1994 Wakefield Historical Publications, 19 Pinder's Grove, Wakefield, WF1 4AH, £14.85 National history is based on local history and how good it is to discover so much activity at local level. This book (by CMP Taylor) is the 35th to be published by Wakefield Historical Publications and if the standard of ...

... Playwright's biography is mind over matter COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE If there was ever a playwright in whom art and life were equated it was Eugene O'Neill. Most of the events of his life, marriages, parenthood, childhood, education, early manhood, are in his plays. So too are the drinking, whoring, illnesses, infidelities, and appetite for the seamy side of life that characterised his ...

... Strict maverick COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE Because he has played so many vividly physical characters on stage and a series of villains in films, Steven Berkoff presents a rather frightening image. But his autobiography Free Association (Faber and Faber, £15.99) is revealing in that, although he is not exactly a pussy cat, he has an extraordinarily sensitive side which comes out of both his ...

... A chance to chart the nice side of the loon Compiled By Peter Hepple Michael Palin, many of us have fett, has always seemed the nicest and most level-headed member of the Monty Python team, an impression strongly confirmed by Jonathan Margolis' biography Michael Palin (Orion Media. £17.99, hbk). Perhaps what most of us like about Palin is his unpretentious- ness and the fact that his feet ...

... Potter the day away with a weighty read COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE Never before, in my experience, have so many showbusiness and theatre biographies, some of them auto, been published as during this autumn. One or two of them, it must be said, are of people whose careers have scarcely reached the ten-year mark--a biography in progress, one might say proving, if nothing else, that publishers ...

... A lady with star spirit BIOGRAPHY Chili Bouchier always wanted to be a film star. And for a while in the twenties, it looked as though she would be. The fact that she never quite attained the starriest heights makes her book Shooting Star (Book-in Hand Ltd, 20 Shepherds Hill, London N6 5AH, £14.99) more interesting, to my mind, than if she had, despite some very sloppy proof reading. Bom ...

... A fool--but full of Wisdom Peter Hepple puts his feet up and enjoys some recent literature which has appeared on the bookshelves The most astonishing thing about Norman Wisdom is that at the age of 82 he is still working. His book, 'Cos I'm a Fool (Breedon Books, Breedon House, 44 Friar Gate, Derby DE1 1DA, £15.99), written in collaboration with Stage contributor Bernard Bale, gives many ...

... Nod to the extras' times Compiled By Peter Hepple Twenty years ago Mike Martin worked in the advertisement department of this newspaper, which apparently he did not like. As befits the son of that fine comedian George Martin, he is a performer at heart, having been part of a double act and he even still retains a connection with The Stage as an occasional con tributor and reviewer. But in ...

... HARD GRAFT io reao bieven berKorr s Gran: Tales of an Actor (Oberon Books, £12) is to come to some under standing of the actor whose opin ions about his profession have been well aired recently. Though ostensibly fiction, it is quite obvious that Harry, the actor who is telling the tales, is Berkoff himself and in many cases bears a striking resem blance to the incidents related in his ...

... DOWN TO EARTH The Young Person's Guide to Ballet is a little big to be a Christmas stocking filler, and at £14 may be considered a little expensive. Published by Pavilion Books, it is the kind of book I which would have been given I automatically to little girls 20 I years ago the intended age I range is eight to 12. But it is I noticeable that the front cover I shows a girl and boy, and any ...

... BRITS ON BROADWAY Elizabeth Sharland has hit on a neat idea with her theatrical guides, though I feel they would be more useful in pocket size rather than full-page hardback format. She has already tackled London, now she does New York in The British on Broadway (Barbican Press, £12.95). Her style is agreeably discursive but seems to go off at tangents in what is presumably an attempt to put ...

... BLAZING A TRAIL Edwin o sachs is one of the lesser-known names in theatre architecture, possibly because he did not himself design a London theatre. The title of the memoir, Edwin 0 Sachs: Architect Stage hand, Engineer and Fireman, edited by David Willmore (Theatresearch, £20) actually sums up the career of this remarkable man, who died in 1919 when he was only 49, never having received all ...