Underfoot in Show Business

Helene Hanff (1916-97) was an American author, journalist and playwright, who captured the hearts of readers everywhere with her book 84, Charing Cross Road - an account of her love affair with an antiquarian bookshop in London. She was born in Philadelphia but moved to her adopted city of New York, where she studied playwriting and wrote scripts for live television. Later she penned articles for The New Yorker and Harper's magazines before becoming the author of books for adults and children. The New York apartment building where she lived and wrote at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named 'Charing Cross House' in her honour and a bronze plaque next to the front door celebrates her residence; in London a matching plaque on the site of the original building commemorates the bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road. Jean Hanff Korelitz was born and raised in New York and graduated from Dartmouth College and Clare College, Cambridge. She is a New York Times bestselling author (The Plot, The Latecomer, Admission), and several of her novels have been adapted for film and television. She has also written a collection of poetry, a novel for middle grade readers and adapted James Joyce's The Dead for the theatre. Korelitz is also the founder of Book The Writer - a New York City-based pop-up book group where readers discuss books in person with their authors. Bruce Eric Kaplan is an American cartoonist whose single-panel illustrations are frequently published in The New Yorker. His signature style is distinctive and off-beat - often combining dark humour with deceptively simple illustration. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and producer (working on television series Nobody Wants This, Six Feet Under, Girls and Seinfeld too), and has written and illustrated books for both adults and children.

• IntroductionJean Hanff KorelitzChapter OneFlanagan's Law Footnote to Chapter 1: It Doesn't Pay to Educate PlaywrightsChapter Two"No Casting Today But Keep in Touch!" Chapter ThreeIf They Take You to Lunch They Don't Want Your Play Chapter FourIf She Takes You to Lunch She Can't Sell It Chapter FiveThe Underfoot Free Enterprise System Chapter Six"Sumer Is Icumen In..." Chapter Seven"No LegsNo JokesNo Chance" Chapter EightLarge Furnished Rear with Kitchen Privileges Chapter NineOutside Hollywood Chapter TenOwl and Piglet on Broadway Chapter Eleven"Lhude Sing Cuccu" Chapter TwelveA Round Trip through the Annex, or Sarah Wants to Do Something Greek and Other Stories

"Another charmer of a book ... fresh, fascinating and very funny indeed" - The Stage"A wonderful, zany, funny memoir ... Hanff is as enchanting as ever" - Publisher's Weekly