The Great Good Places | Dame Margaret Drabble in conversation with Sir Christopher Hampton
In 1977, Margaret Drabble became Bridport Arts Centre’s first-ever guest speaker. Forty-nine years later, she returns to support our Come Together campaign.
Margaret will join Sir Christopher Hampton, BAC’s Honorary Patron and guest curator of our From Page To Screen film festival in 2023, to discuss her new memoir, The Great Good Places. Friends since before that first visit, they promise an evening of warm conversation and fascinating reflections on her life and work.
When Margaret first spoke here, the local community had transformed a former Wesleyan chapel and school into an arts centre. Today, our £400,000 campaign carries that same community spirit.
This event will be a powerful full circle moment and the perfect way to kickstart the final weeks of fundraising.
Join us to celebrate a remarkable literary life and support the next chapter of Bridport Arts Centre.
Dame Margaret Drabble is one of Britain’s most distinguished novelists.
Born in Sheffield in 1939, she studied at Cambridge and has written numerous acclaimed novels, including The Millstone, The Needle’s Eye and The Radiant Way.
She has also written biographies and edited The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Her work is admired for its intelligence and sharp observation of contemporary British society. She was appointed DBE in 2008 for services to literature.
Sir Christopher Hampton is an internationally acclaimed British playwright, screenwriter and translator.
Born in 1946, he achieved early success as a playwright and went on to write Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which he adapted for the screen as Dangerous Liaisons, winning an Academy Award. He received a second Oscar for his screenplay of The Father in 2021. His extensive theatrical work includes translations of plays by Chekhov, Ibsen and Florian Zeller, as well as the book and lyrics for the musical Sunset Boulevard. He was knighted in 2020 for services to drama.