David Wood OBE, described by the late great Times theatre critic Irving Wardle as “the national children’s dramatist”, has written more than 70 plays, including adaptations of books by Judith Kerr, Michelle Magorian, Philippa Pearce and Roald Dahl, as well as original plays of his own.

From 1959 until 2005, David kept up regular correspondence with Frank Whitbourn, whom he credits as his mentor, which is currently being edited into a book called Frank Exchanges.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to David when he was still working on the manuscript with editor Chris Abbott about the book and how Frank’s observations helped his career, as well as about writing for children, producing children’s theatre with his company Whirligig Theatre, the status of children’s theatre in the industry, cultural clashes in theatre-in-education in the 1980s and much more.

Frank Exchanges is due to be published by The Book Guild on 28 June 2023.

[Image of David Wood and Frank Whitbourn at Whitbourn's home in Winchester, 2001, credit: Mary Wright]