# Otherwise Engaged

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- Book: [Otherwise Engaged](https://www.bookquiver.com/donald-spoto/otherwise-engaged) ([Otherwise Engaged.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/donald-spoto/otherwise-engaged.md))
- Authors: [Donald Spoto](https://www.bookquiver.com/donald-spoto)
- Publisher: arrow
- ISBN: 978-00-9949-096-8
- Pages: 336
- Published: 2008-07-03
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

In 1956, at the age of 22, Alan Bates was cast in John Osborne's controversial play, Look Back in Anger . The play changed the course of British theatre - and of Alan's life. With a sudden rush of fame, he became a member of a new circle of actors at the Royal Court: the English Stage Company. From then on, he also worked steadily in television and won international acclaim for his roles in a number of major films, from A Kind of Loving and Zorba the Greek to Women in Love . But his personal life was not always as seemingly straightforward as his career - his relationships, including that with his wife, Victoria Ward, were often turbulent. Drawing on dozens of interviews with his family, lovers, colleagues and friends - and mining a rich store of primary research - Donald Spoto chronicles Alan's achievements as a performer against the backdrop of a complicated personal life.