Hermione Lee - Tom Stoppard: A Life

My first and deepest thanks go to the subject of this biography, who asked me if I would write it, gave me access to a wealth of materials and permission to quote from them, put me in touch with many of his colleagues, friends and family, responded to my questions, undertook long conversations about his life and work over several years, read the typescript for factual errors, and, in spite of his reservations about biography as a genre, and his many other commitments, has been, throughout, helpful, generous and philosophical.

I owe a great debt of thanks to members of Tom Stoppards family: to Sabrina Stoppard for her hospitality, kindness and friendship; to his sons, Oliver, Barny, Will and Ed, for their willingness to talk to me; to his brother Peter and Peters late wife, Lesley, for hosting me in Bristol and for cheerfully providing answers to many questions and crucial materials; to his sister, Fiona, for her generosity and candour; to his cousin Sarka Gauglitz for lending me her letters from Tom Stoppards mother; and to Miriam Stoppard for making me welcome and for several invaluable conversations.

I am hugely grateful to Jacky Matthews for her help, friendship and efficiency, and for all the generous hospitality she and her husband Dave gave me in Winchester. It would have been impossible to do the work on this book without Jackys support.

I thank Tom Stoppards lawyer, Lorna Munro at Blake Morgan, and his accountant, Diane Ruskell, for their helpful information.

In the Czech Republic, I am very grateful to the following for their help: in Prague, Tom Stoppards second cousin Alexandr Rosa and his daughter Kveta Smidova; in Zln, Filip Groschl, Pavel Riha, Vit toura, Antonin Bjaja, and the late Emil Mel. For the history of the Strusslers and the Gellerts in Zln, I am extremely grateful to Vera Somen and Andrew Gellert.

For help and materials relating to David West, Peter Jones and Classics For All, I am grateful to Rosemary Burton, Catherine Hadshar and Christina West.

For help and materials relating to the Dolphin School and Peter Roach, I am grateful to Jill Broome and Sally Roach.

At Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling, I thank Partha Dey and Neena Mandira West for showing me round the school and telling me its history.

For permission to attend rehearsals of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in 2017, and for his interviews and encouragement, I am grateful to David Leveaux; and for friendly communications during those rehearsals, to Daniel Radcliffe, Joshua McGuire, David Haig and William Chubb. I thank Nicholas Hytner for allowing me to sit in on rehearsals of The Hard Problem in 2015. I am grateful to Patrick Marber for giving me access to final rehearsals of Travesties in 2016 and to rehearsals of Leopoldstadt in 2020.

At United Agents, I am extremely grateful to Rose Cobbe and St John Donald for information and materials, and also to Anthony Jones. For help and professional support for my work, I thank, with feeling, my agent Caroline Dawnay, Kat Aitken and also Sophie Scard.

At Faber, I thank Stephen Page, Mitzi Angel during her time there, Robert Brown, Alex Bowler, Suzanne King, Anne Owen and Sophie Portas. My warmest thanks go to Dinah Wood for her patience, her acute and sympathetic reading, and her impeccable professionalism.

At Chatto & Windus, I thank Clara Farmer for her generous understanding.

Colleagues and students at Wolfson College Oxford, especially at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing at Wolfson, have been a source of support, inspiration and encouragement.

A large number of people have given me interviews, information, stories, suggestions, translations, hospitality, advice, access, permissions to quote, and help of many kinds. I list them here, with my grateful thanks:

Deke, Jill and Jamie Arlon; Simon Armitage; Emanuel Azenberg; Ed Berman; Michael Billington; Andr Bishop at the Lincoln Center; Robert Bookman; John Boorman; Michael Brandman and Joanna Miles; the late Helen Brann; Harvey Brown; Robert Carsen; Vera Chok; Glenn Close; Sir Michael Codron and his staff at the Aldwych Theatre; Lottie Cole; Angela Connor; Anna Cooke; David Cornwell; Tim, Hlne and Ben Corrie; Isabel Cortan; Bob Crowley; Rachel Cunningham-Day; Julie Curtis; Sinad Cusack; Mark Damazer; Gordon Dickerson; Sos Eltis; Michael Fend; Martyn Fletcher; Roy Foster; Lady Antonia Fraser; Sonia Friedman; Paul Gallagher; Jo Glanville; Derek Goldby; Michael Grandage; Victoria Gray; Nicholas Grene; Bill Hagerty; Sue Hales; Henry Hardy; Sir David Hare; Alexandra Harris; Sir Max Hastings; the late Drue Heinz; Sir Nicholas Hytner; the late Clive James; Marigold and Paul Johnson; Peter Jones; Daniel Kehlmann; Felicity Kendal; Kathleen Kennedy; Michael Kitchen; Natalia Koliada of Belarus Free Theatre; the late Benjamin Lee; Elizabeth Leedham-Green; David Leveaux; Amanda Lillie; James Loehlin; Tim Luscombe; Alastair Macaulay; Ian McEwan; Jerome McGann; Margaret Macmillan; John Madden; Patrick Marber; David Marks; Deborah Moggach; Trish Montemuro; Kathryn Murphy; the late Peter Nichols; Bill Nighy; Sir Trevor Nunn; Jack OBrien; Andrew OHagan; Arkady Ostrovsky; Ursula Owen; Bridget Patterson; Carey Perloff; Frank Pike; Eric Price; Philip Pullman; Alex Pyz; Diana Quick; Piers Paul Read; Robyn Read; Sir Tim Rice; Dame Diana Rigg; Daniel Rosenthal; Sir Simon Russell Beale; Max Saunders; Diane Sawyer; Bernard Schwartz at the 92nd Street Y; the late Sir Roger Scruton; Graeme Segal; Anthony Smith; John Smith; Andrew Speed; Steven Spielberg; Jean Strouse; Adam Thirlwell; the late John Tydeman; Richard Vinen; Rupert Walters; Janet Watts; Teresa Wells; Susanna White; the late Charles Wood and Valerie Wood; Blanka Zizka.

My warm thanks go to my admirable researcher, Sumaya Partner, and to my friend Vanessa Guignery for her generous assistance while she has been working at the Harry Ransom Center.

I am very grateful to my agent in the USA, Zo Pagnamenta.

At Knopf, my grateful thanks to the late Sonny Mehta for encouraging the publication of this biography, to my peerless editor, LuAnn Walther, and to all those who have looked after the book, in particular Reagan Arthur, Kathy Hourigan and Ellie Pritchett.

I have some very particular, personal debts of gratitude. I thank my good friend Mark Lawson, a rich fund of knowledge on Tom Stoppard and his work, for his generous help throughout. I thank Richard Eyre, with admiration and gratitude, for his advice, his reading, and his encouragement. I thank Julian Barnes, who from the first to last moments of this books progress has been a listener, a rigorous and inspiring reader, and an advice centre. I thank my dear friend and reader, the unmatchable biographer Jenny Uglow, who has been at my side all through my work on this book, as with every book, and who has helped it take shape. Above all I thank my husband, John Barnard, my lifes companion, here and in the dedication.

I am grateful to numerous archivists and librarians for their help. Above all, at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Austin Texas, I am grateful to Steve Enniss, Eric Colleary, Cristina Meisner, Rick Watson, and to the ever-helpful staff of the Center.

My thanks also to:

Samantha Blake at the BBC Archives

Lincia Daniel at Learning on Screen, British Universities and Colleges Film and Video Council

Erik Dix and Charles Lamb, Notre Dame Archives

Angie Edwards, Librarian and Archivist, Pocklington School

Karina Girnyte at the Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design

Hannah Johnson and Melissa Kunz, Special Collections, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa

Erin Lee, Malcom Mathieson and Frances Horner at the National Theatre Archive