Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down : How One Generation of British Actors Changed the World

Alan Bates, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, Robert Shaw and Terence Stamp: They are the most formidable acting generation ever to tread the boards or stare into a camera, whose anti-establishment attitude changed the cultural landscape of Britain. This was a new breed, many culled from the working class industrial towns of Britain, and nothing like them has been seen before or since. Their raw earthy brilliance brought realism to a whole range of groundbreaking theatre from John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" to Joan Littlewood and Harold Pinter and the creation of the National Theatre. And they ripped apart the staid, middle class British film industry with kitchen sink classics like "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", "This Sporting Life", "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", "A Kind of Loving" and "Billy Liar" before turning their sights on international stardom: Connery with James Bond, O'Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, Finney with Tom Jones and Caine in Zulu. "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down" brings alive the trail-blazing period of theatre and film from 1956-1964 through the vibrant energy and exploits of this revolutionary generation of stars who bulldozed over austerity Britain and paved the way for the swinging 60s. What Peter Biskind's "Easy Riders Raging Bulls" did for American cinema writing so "Don't Let the Bastards" will do for the British cinema.

Robert Sellers is the author of the bestselling Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed, Hollywood Hellraisers and An A-Z of Hellraisers. He has also written biographies on Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, a history of the George Harrison/Monty Python film company HandMade, and the controversial Battle for Bond, which for a time was banned by the family of Ian Fleming. He was a regular contributor to Empire, Total Film, Independent, SFX and Cinema Retro and has contributed to a number of television documentaries, including Channel 4's The 100 Best Family Films.