David Edgar



Profile:


Full name: David Edgar

Area of interest: Society and Culture, Arts, Drama

Journals: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:davidedgar@blueyonder.co.uk davidedgar@blueyonder.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / David Edgar

Blog: Comment is free...

Agent/Publisher: Alan Brodie Representation; Nick Hern Books

Networks:



Biography:
Education: Oundle School; Manchester University: Drama

Career: Editor of the university newspaper he became a journalist in Bradford, after a short career in journalism became a full-time writer in 1972


 * See: Biography by (British Council)

Current position/role: Occasional columnist, journalist


 * also writes/written for: The Daily Telegraph (Travel), London Review of Books

Other roles: Playwright, Writer

Other activities: Professor at the University of Birmingham, where he founded and directed Britain's first postgraduate course in playwriting
 * Was active in the Anti-Nazi League and the Campaign Against Racism & Fascism in the 1970s in the UK

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: see author statement & critical perspective (British Council)
 * A teachable art - The Birmingham Magazine
 * In conversation with David Edgar - Writers Guild of Great Britain, 21st June 2007

Plays/TV/Radio: doollee.com: Plays by David Edgar; IMDb

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours: See prizes and awards (British Council); Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Other: Son of Barrie Edgar and the actress Joan Burman, and maternal grandson of Thornton (IMDb links)



Books & Debate:

 * Bibliography (British Council)

Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Guardian:

 * no print column

Column remit: Society and Culture, Arts, Drama

Section:

Role:

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:davidedgar@blueyonder.co.uk davidedgar@blueyonder.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / David Edgar

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity:

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * stand up for liberty in Britain?'' - The three main parties are all dragging their feet. They must deliver on the promise of a freedom bill - 28th January 2011
 * must stay committed to civil liberties'' - The party will live to regret adopting Michael Howard's approach to crime and punishment - 8th July 2010
 * the ban of Moonfleece matters'' - What is claimed as anti-discrimination is part of a censorious attitude stalking Britain - 10th April 2010
 * only the BBC behaved less like bankers and more like my local council'' - The broadcaster should reassert its public service values, rather than aping the status-obsessed largesse of the City - 17th February 2010
 * of the new play'' - My research should put paid to the fashionable canard that text-based drama empties theatres - 10th December 2009
 * misreading of fiction as fact makes suspects of us all'' - Artists have long been prosecuted over fantasy, but the Manchester case has placed adolescent imagination in the dock - 19th September 2009
 * the new revolution, progressives fight against, not with, the poor'' - The old, transformative alliance between the intelligentsia and the poor has been broken by the intelligentsia itself - 25th August 2009
 * weasels'' - The idea that he was a dissenting figure only in later life ignores the politics of his early work - 29th December 2008
 * of pluralism'' - For all the state rhetoric, the path of politicised British Muslims is rarely extremist, but progressive - 29th October 2008
 * and dram'' - Why has this decade seen the rise of a vibrant theatre of reportage? - 30th September 2008
 * Britain is a broken society, it's the Tories what broke it'' - Cameron's party wants us to believe that it has the will and policies to tackle social breakdown, but not that any of this is its fault - 26th September 2008
 * This muddled terror law limits free speech and wrecks innocent lives - The glorification clause of the Terrorism Act has created a climate where artists and academics must watch their words - 22nd July 2008
 * Bye George - On the eve of George Bush's visit to London as part of his farewell tour, an open letter to the departing US president sums up his legacy, both to his own country and Britain - 14th June 2008
 * My misspelling, their misrepresentation - Those who responded to my article didn't accurately report my views - but, more importantly, they didn't address my fundamental point - 25th April 2008
 * Turning points - They declaim in the rhetoric of the Enlightenment, but how enlightened are those former leftists who have in reality abandoned sicial justice? - 19th April 2008
 * Theatre audiences deserve the next Ravenhill and Kane - The Arts Council intends to promote street theatre and circus skills instead of new plays, but people want text-based work - 13th December 2007
 * We are not wage slaves - The screenwriters' strike in America is a fight for the creative and financial independence of writers - 17th November 2007
 * You can't use the O-word - Believe it or not, use of 'Olympic' could be barred under copyright law. And maybe even '2012' - 8th October 2007
 * These medical moralisers might as well try banning sex - Denying surgery to drinkers and smokers goes against the ethos of the NHS: to provide care on the basis of need - 7th June 2007
 * What seemed a death rattle spawned a new form of protest and politics - The events of 1956 are at last being reinterpreted. Hungary and Suez gave birth to the new left and a model of mass action - 31st October 2006
 * Sorry, but we can't just pick and choose what to tolerate - The furore over the right to wear the veil has exposed the double standards of the liberal anti-Islam agenda - 11th October 2006
 * We need the Lords to hold firm on the terrorism bill - Artists have been here before and know they face a real threat from the attempt to outlaw the glorification of terror - 28th February 2006
 * Beating the BNP - In the 1970s, fascists in Britain were poised for a breakthrough. We can learn vital lessons from the way they were thwarted - 23rd April 2002



Links:

 * Wikipedia bio