Halesworth’s arts centre, The Cut, has announced a new series of fundraising events featuring today’s leading writers in conversation about their work and lives.

The series, called Cut Conversations, opens with Dame Hermione Lee on one of our greatest living playwrights, Sir Tom Stoppard.

The acclaimed biographer of Virginia Woolf, Hermione Lee has most recently completed an 825-page definitive account of Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter, Tom Stoppard, A Life.

Stoppard is Hermione Lee’s first living biographical subject and, with unprecedented access to private papers, diaries and letters – plus countless interviews with figures ranging from Felicity Kendal to John Boorman, Trevor Nunn to Steven Spielberg – she has written a meticulously researched and hugely enjoyable portrait of his dazzling life and work.

East Anglian Daily Times: The cover of Tom Stoppard, A Life by Hermione Lee, the subject of the first Cut Conversations eveningThe cover of Tom Stoppard, A Life by Hermione Lee, the subject of the first Cut Conversations evening (Image: Faber Books)

Hermione Lee will present an illustrated talk and then share unique details and stories about Stoppard in a one-off conversation with former Bloomsbury publisher, Liz Calder. Audiences online will be able to join them from anywhere in the world.

Liz Calder explains: “I read Tom Stoppard by Hermione Lee during the first days of lockdown. What a piece of luck! I have never enjoyed a biography so much.

"It lightened and enlightened those dark days. There isn’t a dull page in it. But then there wasn’t, it seems, a dull day in the life of Tom Stoppard.

"I’m so looking forward to speaking to Hermione, having known her for many years, and Tom Stoppard has hugely enriched my theatre experiences and cultural life.’

Copies of the book Tom Stoppard, A Life are available to order from Halesworth Bookshop.

This is a fundraiser for The Cut and will take place on Zoom on Sunday March 14, 2021 starting at 3pm. Tickets can be booked online.