THE HISTORY OF POLLY BOWLER by Herself: As told to Keith Dewhurst. This item is unavailable.THE HISTORY OF POLLY BOWLER by Herself: As told to Keith Dewhurst

The History of Polly Bowler by award-winning writer Keith Dewhurst is set in the precarious world of Victorian theatre. When her mother dies in childbirth and her father flees to escape transportation for machine-smashing, Polly Bowler and her younger brother run away from their harsh working life in a Lancashire cotton mill and join a company of strolling players.

Polly Bowler tells the story of her coming of age with all the vigour of the times as she grows into a woman and understands all that entails. There is no shortage of suitors, but it is leading man Tom Dorchester who holds her heart. Eventually Polly and Jem reach London and Polly becomes a great star. Her life glitters with the celebrities of the day but when an irresistible offer arises the dilemma at the centre of her life and of her satisfaction as a woman, remains: delightful, unreliable, opium-addicted Tom Dorchester.

Keith Dewhurst was born in 1931. He worked in a cotton mill and as a travelling reporter with Manchester United before becoming a playwright. Three of his seventeen stage plays were premiered at the Royal Court Theatre and six, including his adaptation of Flora Thompson's 'Lark Rise', at the Royal National Theatre. Several of these plays featured the folk rock bands Steeleye Span and The Albion Band. He wrote two movies, the novel 'Captain of the Sands', eighteen TV plays, of which 'Last Bus' won the Japan Prize, and episodes for many series, including the original 'Z-Cars'. He has collaborated with the musician Ashley Hutchings, theatre director Bill Bryden, David Leland, with whom he wrote the film 'Land Girls' and Jack Shepherd, with whom he wrote 'Impossible Plays'. Keith Dewhurst was a Guardian columnist, a member of the Production Board of the British Film Institute, a presenter of TV arts programmes and a Granada comedy show and has written two football books and (with Jack Shepherd) a theatrical memoir. In Australia he was involved in an environmental protest by the Palm Beach Action Group. His second wife is the theatrical agent Alexandra Cann.