Amazon.com (ISBN 0312221266, Hardcover)

British screenwriter and teleplaywright Dennis Potter--best known to American audiences, perhaps, for Pennies from Heaven (and even then, for the Steve Martin adaptation, though the original British miniseries starring Bob Hoskins be less well known)--was a brave man. His private life was a torture of extreme psoriasis coupled with arthritis, which turned his hands into claws and his skin into snowflakes. His public life was a constant bombardment of censorial criticism as he pushed the boundaries of television with his challenging psychosexual dramas. Yet his genius was never questioned--and the viewing public were ultimately forced to readjust its couch position. The biography begins with Potter's childhood in the Forest of Dean, through a highly political Oxford career and his marriage to his childhood and lifelong sweetheart. After this comes the work, a mutated hybrid of Potter's own life and a dream world constructed from songs and sexual fantasies. Carpenter treads carefully; there are still many living friends and relatives, and some of the material is emotionally complex. He presents Potter through detailed accounts of his work and extensive interviews with friends, lovers, and colleagues, leaving readers to make up their own minds about this fiery, brilliant, demanding man. Potter's life has often been reduced to a tabloid blur of slurs; this biography offers readers a chance to see the man in all his guises. --Hannah Griffiths, Amazon.co.uk