The Vagabond Lover: a Father-Son Memoir Published 24 April 2017
What happens to the Vagabond Lover, the legendary broadcasting and variety star, Cavan O'Connor, is a central theme and issue of Garry O'Connor's autobiographical account of his father and himself up to his father's death in 1997.
"The backstage story of one of Britain's most popular entertainers told by the son who made his own way in a world his father never knew. Cavan O'Connor's boy has written an enthralling family biography, full of gossip, wise insights and fascinating revelations." Sir Ian McKellen
Pub: CentreHouse Press
01803 863215 inquiries@centrehousepress.co.uk
Price £20 hardback, 296 pages
ISBN 978-190208615
What happens to the Vagabond Lover, the legendary broadcasting and variety star, Cavan O'Connor, is a central theme and issue of Garry O'Connor's autobiographical account of his father and himself up to his father's death in 1997.
"The backstage story of one of Britain's most popular entertainers told by the son who made his own way in a world his father never knew. Cavan O'Connor's boy has written an enthralling family biography, full of gossip, wise insights and fascinating revelations." Sir Ian McKellen
Pub: CentreHouse Press
01803 863215 inquiries@centrehousepress.co.uk
Price £20 hardback, 296 pages
ISBN 978-190208615
On Kindle
3 novels, featuring famous literary figures
Chaucer's Triumph
Campion's Ghost
The Book That Kills
& non-fiction
The Darlings of Downing Street
3 novels, featuring famous literary figures
Chaucer's Triumph
Campion's Ghost
The Book That Kills
& non-fiction
The Darlings of Downing Street
Garry O'Connor's page on Amazon gives details of all his publications
Chaucer's Triumph
"The year is 1399, and John of Gaunt is dead. His body is laid out for all to see in chapels across England for forty days to earn his soul’s redemption. The final four days provide the backdrop for O’Connor’s vibrant adventure...Those who have not studied Chaucer’s works should not be deterred. O’Connor skilfully weaves Chaucer’s tales and poems into the novel ...Narration is shared by many characters, creating a cacophony of voices in the first part of the book, but becomes more focused by mid-point...O’Connor’s greatest achievement is his warm, wise, and humorous portrayal of the poet Chaucer. All of the vibrancy revealed in Chaucer’s works flows through O’Connor’s portrayal, and the reader will look forward to every chapter narrated by the poet." Catherine A. Perkins, The Historical Novel Society Publisher: Petrak, February, 2007 |
Campion's Ghost
In Campion’s Ghost (1994, novel and BBC 4 play), amid the religious strife of Elizabethan England, the poet John Donne rejects his Catholic upbringing to seek preferment at court. Yet his nature, his conscience and his passion for a mistress cause him constant torment.
"That O’Connor manages to recreate figures such as John Donne and Elizabeth I in many complex and unexpected ways is a tribute to his skill. Donne becomes almost the symbol of his age. Not only is he at the heart of the Renaissance, but he also embodies in his private anguish the bloody battle between Catholicism and Protestantism.’" Sunday Times Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; July 1993 |
The Book That Kills
The Book is small and lethal, and everyone is fighting to possess it. It is worth a great deal of money and may have been written by the Marquis de Sade. Yet this mysterious, erotic book is intimately connected to a series of deaths and suicides of young women before it left France. Read more.
Available at Amazon
Published Aesop Modern 2014
Great British Actors series out now at Amazon
Also available as a Kindle Bundle
This, the last of O'Connor’s
lives of great 20th-century actors, is undoubtedly the best.
"A truly brilliant detective study… One of the truly great actor biographies of our time," wrote Sheridan Morley in The Literary Review. "A sourcebook for all future Guinness commentators," said Alexander Walker in the Evening Standard. In the Guardian Simon Callow judged that "O'Connor's openness to this [hidden sexual] aspect of Guinness has resulted in a theatrical biography that goes far beyond the reach of most such books, and is his best book so far.” |
Dame Peggy Ashcroft was indubitably the greatest
English classical actress of the 20th-century, and this remains the first and
only biography of her. The book was called "a great achievement" by The Times, was highly praised by her close friend, Labour leader Michael Foot, while one of her lovers, Lord Tweedsmuir, wrote in the Spectator that "to have known her, on whatever terms, may be seen as a privilege clearly cherished. Why this should be so is clearly illustrated in O'Connor’s book."
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Garry O'Connor's third book in this Series is a life of Paul Scofield (1920-2002), undoubtedly, and held by most in his profession and those who saw his stage performances, the greatest British actor of his generation, and even the world.
Many actors theatre and film lovers have, and will continue, to find this biography a great inspiration, while for aspiring performers and those too young to have seen him, or for anyone interested in what true integrity means, it is an exemplary and astounding book about an outstanding man. |
Ralph Richardson should be
preserved in the gallery of great eccentrics. Every actor and actress in the
theatrical and film profession, even those who never met him, has a Ralph Richardson
story, invariably hilarious if not puzzling, about this lovable and
unpredictable character.
Garry O'Connor's groundbreaking biography, first published in 1982 and reprinted many times, captures in a very personal way the essence of the man who dominated twentieth century British theatre, and the magic of those unforgettable performances.
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The Butcher of Poland
The life of the Bavarian Hans Frank, one of the ten war criminals hanged at Nuremburg in 1946, who converted to Catholicism before he died, has not received the full attention the world has given to other Nazi leaders. In many ways he warrants it more. Read More
Available from History Press as hardback or ebook. Also available at Amazon.
1st Household Cavalry 1943-1945: In the Shadow of Monte Amaro
Published by the History Press is Garry's book exploring and showing the extraordinary family the First Household Cavalry Regiment was at this time, seen through the eyes of its junior officers for the most part aged only 19, when they ceased being boys and became men. Read More
Hear Derek Jacobi reading an excerpt at the book launch
Hear Derek Jacobi reading an excerpt at the book launch
Subdued Fires: An Intimate Portrait of Pope Benedict XVI
Press release from the publisher, The History Press:
"On the Pope’s last day in office, The History Press is delighted to announce that this Easter it will be publishing Subdued Fires: An Intimate Portrait of Pope Benedict XVI by Garry O’Connor, acquired through Blake Friedmann. In 2010 Garry O’Connor suggested that the Pope might, indeed should, consider resignation, an amazingly prescient observation. Shaun Barrington, Commissioning Editor at The History Press, commented ‘We know that from the author of the acclaimed Universal Father: a Life of Pope John Paul II, we have a sympathetic, critical biography of an extraordinary figure, published at an extraordinary moment in the history of the Catholic Church.’ "
Hear Garry talk about Subdued Fires.
Publisher: History Press, March 2013
"On the Pope’s last day in office, The History Press is delighted to announce that this Easter it will be publishing Subdued Fires: An Intimate Portrait of Pope Benedict XVI by Garry O’Connor, acquired through Blake Friedmann. In 2010 Garry O’Connor suggested that the Pope might, indeed should, consider resignation, an amazingly prescient observation. Shaun Barrington, Commissioning Editor at The History Press, commented ‘We know that from the author of the acclaimed Universal Father: a Life of Pope John Paul II, we have a sympathetic, critical biography of an extraordinary figure, published at an extraordinary moment in the history of the Catholic Church.’ "
Hear Garry talk about Subdued Fires.
Publisher: History Press, March 2013
Debussy Was My Grandfather / The Madness of Vivien Leigh - Two Plays
A theme common to both these plays by Garry O'Connor is the emotional and psychological turmoil underneath the veil of public careers, with an uncompromising look at the undercurrents: the dysfunction of domestic/family life, in all its anguish and floridity. There's a nicely judged balance between art in its moments of transcendence, and the reality underpinning it, with a flawed humanity put to the service of art.
Read the first paragraphs of the Introduction to Debussy Was my Grandfather.
In The Madness of Vivien Leigh O'Connor shows the marriage of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier already under strain.
"The mythology of one of the century's most celebrated marriages...a brilliantly perceptive portrait." The Observer
"With real insight O'Connor gets plausibly close to what made Olivier and wife tick as artists...apenetrating, utterly objective mind at work." Irish Times
Publisher: CentreHouse Press, July, 2012
Read the first paragraphs of the Introduction to Debussy Was my Grandfather.
In The Madness of Vivien Leigh O'Connor shows the marriage of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier already under strain.
"The mythology of one of the century's most celebrated marriages...a brilliantly perceptive portrait." The Observer
"With real insight O'Connor gets plausibly close to what made Olivier and wife tick as artists...apenetrating, utterly objective mind at work." Irish Times
Publisher: CentreHouse Press, July, 2012
William Shakespeare: A Popular Life
With this authoritative and absorbing biography, Garry O'Connor fills a gap left by the numerous critical studies of Shakespeare's art. Drawing on documentary evidence, on the views of actors, directors and academics, and on the plays and poems themselves, he imaginatively reconstructs the playwright's life. The result gives renewed insight into the works of an extraordinary man and bring Shakespeare alive for the modern age.
"O'Connor's Shakespeare is a contemporary figure ... he writes with enormous, extravagant, sometimes reckless enthusiasm. The ideas jostle each other off the page and many are worth savouring ... This is an entertaining book, and it has been a pleasure to argue with it."
John Mortimer in The Sunday Times
Publisher: Applause Theatre Book Publishers; Expanded edition (31 Dec 1999)
"O'Connor's Shakespeare is a contemporary figure ... he writes with enormous, extravagant, sometimes reckless enthusiasm. The ideas jostle each other off the page and many are worth savouring ... This is an entertaining book, and it has been a pleasure to argue with it."
John Mortimer in The Sunday Times
Publisher: Applause Theatre Book Publishers; Expanded edition (31 Dec 1999)
Universal Father: A Life of Pope John Paul II
This biography is the "...only life of the late Pope that is an artistic achievement in its own right. None of O'Connor's predecessors has matched his exposition of the literary, philosophical and dramatic sources of John Paul's pontificate, or his nimble untangling of the strands of theological argument." Damien Thompson in the Telegraph
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2003
The Secret Woman: A Life of Peggy Ashcroft
Garry O'Connor's is the first full biography of Peggy Ashcroft. In her lifetime she discouraged anyone who pried into her life. The private person remained undisclosed. Conceived following her death in 1991, O'Connor's biography redresses the balances. She was married three times and each marriage ended in divorce. O'Connor says she never reconciled herself to the differences between role-playing and private life. There's a frankness in the book that will astonish many readers.
Publisher: Weinfeld & Nicolson, January 1997
Sean O'Casey
O'Casey (1888-1964), the feisty Irish dramatist best known for his early plays Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars, is for the first time the subject of a full-length biography. It is a lively, insightful study (by a former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and author of Ralph Richardson) that illuminates a man whose inconsistencies matched his talent but made him a richer character than any he portrayed for the stage.
O'Connor, who covers the playwright's quarrel with Yeats and his notable friendships with Shaw and Harold Macmillan, praises him above all for his humanity.
Publisher: Atheneum, May 1988
O'Connor, who covers the playwright's quarrel with Yeats and his notable friendships with Shaw and Harold Macmillan, praises him above all for his humanity.
Publisher: Atheneum, May 1988
An Actor's Life: Ralph Richardson
Garry O'Connor's critically acclaimed biography, is a warm and revealing portrait of an actor famous not only for his acting gifts but for his eccentric charm. Drawing on archives of the Old Vic and on many conversations with Sir Ralph and those around him, O'Connor has not only chronicled the events of a long, illustrious, and varied career, but has also, in a series of interchapters with Richardson, given us a full sense of his character. In addition, this new edition includes his "Diary of a Biographer" which tells the story of his relationship with Richardson during the research and writing of this book.
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Book Publishers; Rev Sub edition (Oct 1997)
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Book Publishers; Rev Sub edition (Oct 1997)
For more information see Garry's Wikipedia page and for a complete list of publications click here