'If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something' - Kurt Vonnegut
Click on any of these titles in the list below and you'll be taken to a unique page with a description of the book and how to purchase. The costs are low, the covers, presentation, formatting and pagination is all smart and delivery is always prompt. Each book has a unique structure and approach. No corners are cut in my quest for the best quality product, both in terms of how it looks and what or how it is portrayed. Alternatively, an overview of all books can be seen by clicking here
So welcome to the website officially and a little bit about me. I was born in Darlington, north east England in 1963. Apart from a few diversifications in my working life, I like to think of myself mostly as an all-round 'creative' - writer, director, poet, teacher, daydreamer - but what others think of me is up to them! Most of what I've done over the last four decades has come from my own imagination, my education, my training as an actor and teacher, my self-belief and input from an amazing array of talented people whom I've had the privilege or luck to have collaborated with. Without other people, we're nothing. The Master Plan? 'Make the world a better place through art, showing not only how things are but how they could be' could be one definition. I wonder myself sometimes how I've managed to keep going with this dream I've always had. Sometimes a living, sometimes a hobby, sometimes a pain, but always a passion!
I've written twenty-four books and counting and compiled five volumes of twenty-nine theatre plays and one full-length film script which scraped in at number four out of a list of 200 submitted to the Children's Film & Television Foundation in 2005. Sadly only three films got made that year but at least they let me know by mail which was kind of them.
Art can be seen as a kind of philosophy on life and different ideas can be explored, as I've discovered, via both traditional and experimental cultural platforms, such as plays, poems, novels, acting, drama groups, youth theatre, film and video, theatre in education, ambient audio, spoken word, poetry gigs, interviews and Shakespeare. Like most artists (I presume) I hammered out a code of ethics to live and work by and I do my best to stick to those rules.
I've written twenty-four books and counting and compiled five volumes of twenty-nine theatre plays and one full-length film script which scraped in at number four out of a list of 200 submitted to the Children's Film & Television Foundation in 2005. Sadly only three films got made that year but at least they let me know by mail which was kind of them.
Art can be seen as a kind of philosophy on life and different ideas can be explored, as I've discovered, via both traditional and experimental cultural platforms, such as plays, poems, novels, acting, drama groups, youth theatre, film and video, theatre in education, ambient audio, spoken word, poetry gigs, interviews and Shakespeare. Like most artists (I presume) I hammered out a code of ethics to live and work by and I do my best to stick to those rules.
For three years in the late 1980's I trained as an actor at the prestigious Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London and today can count many 'famous' television actors and writers in film and theatre among my former peers. I loved the time I spent training with that team of diverse talents - it taught me to treat my output and myself with professionalism - but I disliked the solo, jobbing actor world once it finished and especially the business part of 'show business' and it is a business. I thrived on teamwork and group creativity and really wanted to join the RSC to develop my craft as an actor but all my agent saw was £ signs. We parted company soon after so early on knew I'd have to travel my own route to preserve my self-respect. I suspected it would be a long and painful road and it has been; I even tried for six years to suppress my creative urges but no, I had to undergo my forty days in the wilderness - it proved to be 'write or die trying'! Getting dressed up in costumes, pretending to be other people and speaking other writers' lines for a living seemed to me to be less interesting than being myself and writing about the world I live in as I see it. I've since created innovative plays, shows, events, happenings, readings, performances, solo and with others. We don't get anywhere, that is make art, by copying other people. We have to be ourselves and it takes a kind of courage to strive for this ideal even when all around think you might be crazy!
Have I succeeded? Yes and no. It seems the quest is eternal, that's the whole point I suppose! Over the years I've acquired knowledge and hands-on experience through college courses, night school, correspondence with Max Stafford-Clarke and Edward Bond, an indefatigable search for expression, a couple of A-Levels, The Oxford English Dictionary, my French 'degree' from Nantes University in 2015, running two professional theatre companies in the UK, entertaining 100,000 people with my theatre work, my French theatre company, my friend and film collaborator Dan Bochereau, giving young British actors Equity cards and solid experience, a ravenous appetite for English literature and theatre plays (which still sees me reading about 50 books a year) and new projects, always looking at ways to cross-fertilise art forms. I've written and 'made stuff happen' since I was a kid and will continue to do so. I currently live in Nantes, France and have been living and working here/there for 17 years.
Click the menu titles at the top of this page to be taken on a journey into the fascinating world of Antony J Stowers, or not. Your choice. All are welcome.
Have I succeeded? Yes and no. It seems the quest is eternal, that's the whole point I suppose! Over the years I've acquired knowledge and hands-on experience through college courses, night school, correspondence with Max Stafford-Clarke and Edward Bond, an indefatigable search for expression, a couple of A-Levels, The Oxford English Dictionary, my French 'degree' from Nantes University in 2015, running two professional theatre companies in the UK, entertaining 100,000 people with my theatre work, my French theatre company, my friend and film collaborator Dan Bochereau, giving young British actors Equity cards and solid experience, a ravenous appetite for English literature and theatre plays (which still sees me reading about 50 books a year) and new projects, always looking at ways to cross-fertilise art forms. I've written and 'made stuff happen' since I was a kid and will continue to do so. I currently live in Nantes, France and have been living and working here/there for 17 years.
Click the menu titles at the top of this page to be taken on a journey into the fascinating world of Antony J Stowers, or not. Your choice. All are welcome.
