Biography of Anthony Booth

"I would like to point out a mistake on your website regarding the playwright Anthony Booth. You have mixed him up with Tony Booth the actor and father of Cherie Blair. The real Anthony Booth was my father and I would be grateful if your website could be amended accordingly. There is often a mix up between the two people as my dad was also an actor before becoming a playwright, but as he was older than Tony Booth Equity agreed that my dad would use the name of Anthony Booth as he was a member first. My dad was born in Sale in Manchester on 30th June 1913. After leaving Oxford University he became an actor and portrayed many roles in the West End before the outbreak of WWII. He was then called up for duty and was a Captain under the command of Lord Mountbatten, being mainly stationed in Burma. After the war he then turned his hand to writing plays. The majority of his plays were written with strong female characters (which was fairly unusual in the 1960's and 1970's) as he recognised the lack of challenging roles for women and he also tried to create plays which could be produced by both professional and amateur groups by keeping the scenery and staging at a minimum and letting the characters keep your attention rather than the set. He received numerous awards for his work and one of his plays was also used as part of the Australian HSC syllabus in the 1980's. He died in Jersey in 1985 at the age of 72."
Keryna Booth, kltb@crillcanavan.com