David Pownall

Biographical Details

David Pownall was born in Liverpool in l938 and educated at Lord Wandsworth College and Keele University. He worked for the Ford motor company and subsequently for in the Zambian copper-mining industry as a personnel officer. He returned to England in l969 to start a new career as a writer.Not long after his arrival he was appointed resident dramatist with the Century Mobile Theatre and subsequently with the newly-formed Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster. He co-founded the theatre company Paines Plough with director John Adams in l975. Two plays of the period – Richard III Part Two and Motocar, were performed at the National Theatre in l977. His corpus of work performed internationally, includes Music To Murder By, An Audience Called Edouard, Beef, Livingstone and Sechele. His play Master Class, about Stalin’s relationship with Prokoviev and Shostakovitch, was produced in many countries around the world. My Father’s House, a play about the Chamberlain dynasty, appeared at the Birmingham Rep in l990 and Elgar’s Rondo, was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford and London in l994. The premiere of Getting The Picture, on the subject of US president Andrew Jackson and the pioneer photographer Mathew Brady, was given at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in l998. His play Death of a Faun on the life of Nijinsky, played at the new studio of Covent Garden Opera House in 2000.A prolific radio dramatist, he has had over 60 plays broadcast both throughout the English-speaking world and in translation. His most recent play for the medium, Hard Frosts In Florence, featuring Paul Scofield, was broadcast on Radio 4 in August 2005. Television plays by David Pownall include The First Ascent of Mont Blanc, Return Fare and Room For An Inward Light.His fictional work includes ten novels (the most recent of which, The Catalogue of Men, was published in l999). The White Cutter (l988) was translated into several languages. He has published thirty short stories, including the collection, My Organic Uncle as well as a range of non-fiction, two collections of poetry. Eight volumes of his plays have been published by Oberon Books.Work for children includes The Dream of Chief Crazy Horse and The Bunch From Bananas.Theatre awards include the John Whiting Prize (Beef); the New York Theatre Yearbook for best foreign play on Broadway and the London Stage Director’s Award for Livingstone and Sechele. Among his other recognitions are the Los Angeles Drama Desk Awards and the Plays and Players nominations for Best Play (Master Class). He was given Edinburgh Festival Fringe Awards for Music To Murder By and Richard III Part Two.He has won two Giles Cooper Awards for radio plus a Sony Gold and two Sony Silver Awards. In l976 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature for his linked novels The Raining Tree War and African Horse. In 2000 he was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by Keele University.David Pownall is married to the photographer Alex Pownall and has two sons. Updated August 2005