Books by Charles Bennett

With a career that spanned from the silent era to the 1990s, British screenwriter Charles Bennett (1899--1995) lived an extraordinary life. His experiences as an actor, director, playwright, film and television writer, and novelist in both England and Hollywood left him with many amusing anecdotes, opinions about his craft, and impressions of the many famous people he knew. Among other things, Bennett was a decorated WWI hero, an eminent Shakespearean actor, and an Allied spy and propagandist during WWII, but he is best remembered for his commercially and critically acclaimed collaborations with directors Sir Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille.The fruitful partnership began after Hitchcock adapted Bennett's play Blackmail (1929) as the first British sound film. Their partnership produced six thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), and Foreign Correspondent (1940). In this witty and intriguing book, Bennett discusses how their collaboration created such famous motifs as the "e;wrong man accused"e; device and the MacGuffin. He also takes readers behind the scenes with the Master of Suspense, offering his thoughts on the director's work, sense of humor, and personal life.Featuring an introduction and additional biographical material from Bennett's son, editor John Charles Bennett, Hitchcock's Partner in Suspense is a richly detailed narrative of a remarkable yet often-overlooked figure in film history.

A book of lyrical landscape poetry set in the Cambridgeshire Fens and with a mission to revise and overturn common impressions of this landscape, powerfully revealing the intrinsic interest, peculiarity and dynamism of the Fens. -- Cinnamon Press

This is the story of a Rasputin-like cat who seems to have an escape for every near-death situation it encounters. Surviving hanging, burning and falling off a roof, what gets it in the end should be obvious.Written and illustrated by Charles Bennett, this Victorian era children's book was originally published in 1860 and is re-printed here to help preserve and introduce new generations to the work of a truly gifted cartoonist.