Martin Dimery

Most of my writing has evolved from performing or working in the theatre. I previously taught drama in schools and worked as a freelance theatre director. In attempting to find suitable vehicles for youth theatre and student groups, I began writing plays. In all, I have written over a dozen stage plays, of which three have been commercially published. "Terms of Engagement" a play about the Falklands War, was the first published (by the Cambridge University Press) in 1989. It was originally performed at the Cockpit Theatre in London.

There followed the book and lyrics for "Bombshells", a more lightweight comedy musical with a music score by Jonathan Palmer. The main plot of "Bombshells" concerns the role of women in the Second World War and has been popular with schools and youth groups who are often looking for a vehicle with plenty of female parts. It was published by SchoolPlay Productions in Colchester. The songs from the show were previewed in a youth theatre festival at the National Theatre in London.

In the late nineties, I began to write more for fringe and small scale theatre companies. The play "An Audience with Ben Jonson" about the Jacobean playwright, was written for two actors and appeared in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was later published by Brown, Son and Ferguson.

A stage musical based on the songs of The Kinks called "Waterloo Sunset" was successfully premiered on a tour in the West of England, including two performances at the Glastonbury Festival, but fell foul of licensing restrictions. What might have been an early precursor to the wave of commercially successful rock musicals, was never fully exploited, and I grew disillusioned with writing for the stage. Having dabbled in the tribute band business (purely for fun) as a dodgy Roger Daltrey with "Who Two" - the opportunity came to start a Beatles tribute as a spin off from a show I'd been involved in called "All You Need is Love". I decided to turn my hand to writing a diary account of our amusing life on the road, and the Guardian newspaper published a segment. This led to another feature in The Stage newspaper, and finally to the book "Being John Lennon" published by SAF in London.

"Without The Beatles" is the second volume, detailing some incident- packed tours in the later years of "Sgt. Pepper's Only Dart Board Band." Eventually, the band morphed into "The Unravelling Wilburys" a tribute to the Traveling Wilburys supergroup and has become a popular feature on the touring circuit in theatres throughout the UK.

During the latter years of Sgt Pepper I also wrote and presented a solo show entitled "Shakespeare Rattle and Roll" taking Shakespeare's song lyrics and re-interpreting them in the musical styles of contemporary performers. The show played at a number of literary and arts festivals and featured at the Leicester Square Theatre studio in London.

My first novel "Ruling Classes" which draws on my experience as a teacher, was published in 2018. In 2022, a new musical entitled "The Haunting of Richard the Third" in collaboration with David Hynds, was premiered at the Frome Festival. Further productions are being planned. A new novel, "Seaview at Sunset," is in preparation.