Under the Covers: Andrew Davies

Details

Bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud brings her illuminating Under the Covers series of talks back to The London Library, with the undisputed maestro of literary adaptation, the mighty Andrew Davies.

Over his incredibly illustrious career, Andrew Davies has written his way into British cultural history, adapting classic literature into classic works for the screen, from Pride and Prejudice to House of Cards, Bleak House to Bridget Jones. Now, in his latest work, he turns his razor-sharp pen on himself. An Unsuitable Boy is a memoir that weaves together wit, irreverence and vulnerability to reflect on a life of writing, loving, adapting, collaborating and surviving. From post-war Cardiff to the BBC boardroom, from Broadway flops to French farmhouses with Robert Altman, this is the story of what happens behind the scripts.

In conversation with Ella Berthoud, on the biblio-couch, he’ll discuss the memoir, the life, the scripts, and the books that have shaped and inspired him, before receiving his bibliotherapeutic analysis and prescription.

Speakers

Andrew Davies is a multi-award-winning screenwriter, novelist and former academic. He is best known for his adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, War and Peace, Bleak House, House of Cards and Bridget Jones’s Diary. His original work includes A Very Peculiar Practice, Game On and Filthy Rich. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a BAFTA and Emmy winner. His memoir An Unsuitable Boy: A Life in Scripts is published in September 2026.

Ella Berthoud is a bibliotherapist, artist and co-author of The Novel Cure: An A-Z of Literary Remedies. She has been prescribing literary cures to readers everywhere for many years.

Our events programme is presented in partnership with Hakluyt & Company, the global strategic advisory firm for businesses and investors.

Additional information

Books by both speakers will be available to buy at the event and online from our partner bookshop Hatchards. Please see our Event Access Guidelines before you arrive.

This event will take place in person at The London Library. Doors (and the bar) will open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.

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