Nominate a Biography: what authors say

David Lean by Kevin Brownlow

Biographies are essential for film researchers because they contain information about films and film people which would never find its way into publicity handouts or critical surveys.

I was not prompted to write David Lean. I was asked by a publisher to write it and I turned it down. I told him that I had no time - I was making a 3-hour documentary on DW Griffith. The publisher then asked me if I would just do the interviews. This was irresistible. The publisher knew I would be hooked, and after a few sessions listening to David Lean, I certainly was.

Research for someone who spends most of his time dealing with the silent era was both easy and enjoyable. In most cases, I could pick up the telephone and ask my questions of the person involved. Mind you, in one case I had seven eye-witness accounts - of the trouble on Passionate Friends - and none of them agreed. I had to ring each person up and plead with them into some sort of consensus. This is not what a historian should have to do!

I did a lot of interviewing. I worked my way through masses of correspondence. And I had a researcher called Cy Young who ploughed through documents and trade papers at the bfi. He produced so much valuable work I gave him full credit on the title page.

The bfi Library Collections were absolutely crucial.

As for a superb example of biography I would select David Robinson's Chaplin.