Behind the Scenes

Angela V. John is the author/editor of a dozen books. Her biographies include Turning the Tide (Parthian) about Lady Rhondda, and Elizabeth Robins: Staging a Life 1862-1952 (Routledge and The History Press), a study of the American actress, writer and suffragette who popularised Ibsen on the British stage. In 2019 her essay collection Rocking the Boat: Welsh Women who Championed Equality 1840-1990 (Parthian) explored different forms of biographical writing.Behind the Scenes developed out of The Actors' Crucible: Port Talbot and the Making of Burton, Hopkins, Sheen and All the Others (Parthian). Angela now lives in Pembrokeshire but grew up in Port Talbot and first met Richard Burton in 1969. For many years she held the Chair in History at the University of Greenwich, London. She is currently an honorary professor at Swansea University, president of Llafur, the Welsh People's History Society, and of the Port Talbot Musical Theatre Society.

'The story of Philip Burton is long overdue – and there is no one better to tell it than the inimitable Angela V. John.' – Michael Sheen“Angela V. John has written a stupendous account of the life of my grandfather, Philip Burton. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, it tells the powerful story of a teacher who changed the lives of his pupils, most notably my father, Richard Burton. His legacy lives on today and this is a biography to be heralded.” – Kate Burton, Actor and Richard Burton’s daughter“In Behind the Scenes, Angela V. John retrieves Philip Burton’s rich, improbable adventure with meticulous care and fascinating detail. Philip Burton’s passionate and inspirational devotion to the spoken word remains revolutionary.” – Toby Jones, who plays Philip Burton in the 2025 film Mr Burton“Angela V. John has done history a service by bringing Philip Burton out from the shadow of his most illustrious pupil, and in such elegant prose.” – Geraint Talfan Davies, Writer and Broadcaster“There is no one better qualified than Angela V. John to give us this loving insight into these two extraordinary Burtons… a fascinating read." – The Oldie“A remarkable evocation of a life, which inspired so many individuals in schools, radio, television and film starting in South Wales and continuing in London, New York and Florida. Behind the Scenes is a detailed, perceptive and illuminating study of how far passion for a subject can propel social mobility further than stark ambition.” – Lloyd Trott, Academy Dramaturg, RADA"This is a fine biography and a valuable addition to the corpus of work inspired by the Burtons of Port Talbot." – Desmond Clifford, Nation.CymruPhilip Burton (1904-95) was an inspirational individual, a man of many talents, whose passion for words and learning propelled him as a scholarship boy in the Cynon valley of South Wales, to university college in Cardiff where he studied mathematics but fell in love with the theatre. On graduation he accepted a job as a teacher in the industrial steel town of Port Talbot. Burton was inspirational from the start: energising a drama and performance culture at the school and in the wider town that has endured and thrived. It was while teaching he began to develop a freelance role as a writer and as an innovative producer for radio with the BBC in Cardiff which would eventually take him on an odyssey first to London then New York and finally Key West. In the United States of the 1960s, a mid-life renaissance would see Philip Burton direct and deliver lecture recitals about Shakespeare’s plays across the country while establishing the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. A restless man, he settled in Key West in later life to write memoir, fiction and several books on theatre. Burton had a transformative impact on many including Dylan Thomas, whose work he produced for the BBC, and Richard Jenkins, whom he mentored to become one of the great acting talents of his time. This illuminating biography of a remarkable life, fascinatingly captured by Angela V. John, brings to our attention and out from behind the scenes a man of many dramatic lives: Mr Philip Burton.