Andrew Sinclair

Andrew Sinclair in 2018

Andrew Annandale Sinclair FRSL FRSA (21 January 1935 — 30 May 2019) was a British novelist, historian, biographer, critic and filmmaker.He was a founding member of Churchill College, Cambridge and a publisher of classic and modern film scripts.

Born in Oxford, England, Sinclair undertook his National Service with the Coldstream Guards and wrote a novel based on the experience, called The Breaking of Bumbo (1959)."At the age of 22, Andrew Sinclair woke up one morning to find himself, like Byron, suddenly famous".In 1970 he directed a film of that name, for which he wrote the screenplay; it starred Joanna Lumley.

Sinclair directed the film, now regarded as a classic, of Under Milk Wood, featuring Richard Burton as the narrator.His book The Better Half: The Emancipation of the American Woman won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1967. His biographies covered a wide variety of famous people: Che Guevara, Dylan Thomas, Jack London, John Ford, J Pierpont Morgan and Francis Bacon. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1972.His most recent work was his autobiography, Storytelling: A Sort of Memoir (2018).

Sinclair was Director of Historical Studies, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1961–63; and Lecturer in American History, University College London (UCL), 1965–67.His writings on persons and themes of American history are identified in his bibliography, below.

In 1966 Sinclair, with Peter Whitehead (filmmaker), founded Lorrimer Publishing, which published the original screenplays of classic films.Wrote Sheridan Morley: "Their format is a simple one: the script itself, with detailed descriptions where action takes over from the words, published with a brief introduction and sideline notes where necessary." Some 70 filmscripts were published, including The Blue Angel and The Third Man.

Andrew Sinclair married three times:

• firstly Marianne Alexandre in 1960 (later divorced) and had one son Timon Alexandre Sinclair;
• secondly Miranda Seymour, daughter of George Fitzroy Seymour (cadet branch of Marquess of Hertford and Duke of Somerset of Thrumpton Hall) and Rosemary Nest Scott-Ellis, daughter of Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden (1880–1946), on 17 October 1972 (marriage dissolved 6 June 1984) and had one son Merlin George Sinclair;
• thirdly Sonia Melchett, widow of British Steel Corporation Chairman Julian Mond, 3rd Baron Melchett, on 25 July 1984, without issue.

Through his third marriage, Sinclair was the stepfather of Peter Mond, 4th Baron Melchett, politician and environmentalist, and Kerena Ann Mond and Pandora Mond, the artist.

In the 1960s Sinclair was instrumental in saving from demolition the historic buildings in Narrow Street, Limehouse. For his book The Last of the Best (1969), he was assisted by Jacquemine Charrott Lodwidge as researcher.

• The Breaking of Bumbo (1970).Director.Starring , Joanna Lumley, John Bird, Edward Fox, Jeremy Child and Richard Warwick.
• Under Milk Wood (1972) Director. Starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O'Toole.
• Blue Blood (1973).Director.Starring Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi.
• Dylan on Dylan (2002, Timon Films)

Film scripts published by Lorrimer Publishing, London:

• This article incorporates a fiction bibliography from the corresponding Italian Wikipedia article as of 20 November 2010.