Contemporary English writer and historian
Educated at Eton, Cambridge, and Harvard, Andrew Sinclair (1935- ) is known on both sides of the Atlantic as a distinguished writer and historian. In between his histories, novels, scenarios, and stories he found time to teach at the University of London and restore a medieval house on the docks of East London. His wife Marianne is a French novelist and translator.
As a rule, a good novel does not always make a good play––especially a novel as unconventional as this one by Dylan Thomas. But Andrew Sinclair’s brilliant adaptation of Adventures in the Skin Trade is the exception. This is the story of young Samuel Bennet––a not entirely innocent provincial––who leaves his Welsh home to let adventure find him in London. Sam is soon deeply involved––all the while with his finger stuck fast in an ale bottle––with a fantastic assortment of odd characters whom only Dylan Thomas could have conceived. What The Times Literary Supplement said about Adventures in the Skin Trade as a novel still applies to the play: “There is no doubt of Thomas’s genius as a comic writer . . . there are memorable images and phrases on every page.” One reason is Andrew Sinclair’s exceptionally skillful adaptation.
