Hampton on Hampton: Conversations with Christopher Hampton

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Since the acclaimed London premiere of his first play in 1966, Christopher Hampton has established himself as one of Britain's most prominent, and least predictable, dramatists. From his best-known play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and its Oscar-winning film version, Dangerous Liaisons, to personal and critical favourites like Total Eclipse and Tales from Hollywood; from his films as writer-director (Carrington, Imagining Argentina) to his work as screenwriter-for-hire (Mary Reilly, The Quiet American); from translations ('Art') to musicals (Sunset Boulevard), Hampton eloquently - and entertainingly - explores his varied career with interviewer Alistair Owen, and discusses its recurring theme: the clash of liberal and radical thought, exemplified by his most recent play, The Talking Cure, about the fathers of psychoanalysis, Jung and Freud.

Author Bio

Christopher Hampton was born in the Azores in 1946. As a child he travelled around Aden, Egypt and Zanzibar. He was educated at Lancing College and in 1966 he went to New College, Oxford to study German and French, graduating in 1969 with a First Class degree. He wrote his first play, When Did You Last See Your Mother, at the age of eighteen. It was first performed by Oxford undergraduates and subsequently moved to the Royal Court in June 1966. Since then, Christopher Hampton has worked on numerous original plays, adaptations and translations in the theatre, television and cinema. Hampton's plays are published by Faber in its Contemporary Classics series.