Biography of Bettine Manktelow

Bettine Manktelow has been in theatrical ventures either professional of amateur all her life, starting off as a repertory actress at the age of fifteen. Her first play, which was not published, was presented in Singapore to an audience of sophisticated ex-pats. As it was a kitchen-sink drama it was greeted with hoots of laughter. At the time Bettine did not realise she had a flare for comedy! Subsequent plays, however, even when dramatic or thrilling always managed to have interntional comical lines and/or comical characters. Her career as a playwright did not take off until the 1970s when she was directing for an amateur company in Ramsgate, Kent. By sheer luck one of her plays was taken up by a professional company in Folkestone and a director from French's was there to see it. He liked it, and it was published. This was "They Call it Murder." Since then Bettine has written and had published twenty plays, mostly published by Samuel French but also by Jasper Publishing. She now lives in Deal and continues to write and direct a new play on an annual basis.