Alexander Ballinger: "Phyllis Dalton: a Career in Costume" @ Southwold Literary Festival

Alexander Ballinger has worked in the book trade for over 30 years & is an expert on writing about cinema.

He was series editor of Longman's "Inside Film" and "On Directors", wrote the acclaimed "New Cinematographers", based on interviews with six of the world's top directors of photography, and co-authored Penguin's "The Rough Guide to Film Noir".

Alexander's day job is managing Bailey Hill Bookshop in Castle Cary whereas his "other" job for nearly a decade was writing "Phyllis Dalton A Career in Costume".

His book is the result of a decade of exclusive interviews with the double Oscar-winning film costume designer, Phyllis Dalton (1925-2025).Illustrated with a generous selection of images from Phyllis Dalton's extraordinary archive, Alexander Ballinger tells the story of Phyllis Dalton MBE, one of the most celebrated film costume designers of the 20th Century.

Expect to be entertained by recollections, insights and revelations from epic films like "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago" and "Oliver!" to Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V", "Much Ado About Nothing" and cult classics "The Princess Bride" and "A Private Function" starring Maggie Smith and Michael Palin.

Many of the book's illustrations, sourced from Dalton's personal archive, showcase unique ephemera, fabric swatches, production stills, large format pencil-and-watercolour sketches, and production notebooks from six decades of filmmaking.

Many of these stunning images, including Dalton's personal on-location photographs from the "Lawrence of Arabia" shoot, have never been published before.Unreserved seating.