Peggy Ramsay, the influential British play agent who nurtured several generations of Britain's most important playwrights, was one of the most unforgettable individuals of the English-speaking theatre in this century.

Best known for the part she played in Joe Orton's career and immortalized by Vanessa Redgrave's portrayal of her in the film Prick Up Your Ears, Peggy Ramsay had a prodigious list of clients that included Eugene Ionesco, John Mortimer, Robert Bolt, Christopher Hampton, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Howard Brenton, David Hare, Willy Russell and Alan Ayckbourn. A legend in her own lifetime, Peggy was feared and loved in equal measure.

Her refusal to spend money on her office, her employees or herself was more than mere eccentricity; it was a credo - her writers came first and last. When she died a millionaire in 1997, all the money went into a foundation to encourage writers, much as she had encouraged and bullied them when she was alive.

Given Peggy's blessing, Colin Chambers was granted complete freedom of access to all the records and correspondence accumulated over the forty years of her agency's existence, including hundreds of impassioned letters between Peggy and her authors. He has also benefited from the willing cooperation of her clients and has delved deeply into her early life, bringing to light a good many new and surprising aspects of this multifaceted woman whose ability to nurture talent is unlikely to be equaled for many a decade.