SCREENWRITING WINNER

It is amazing how everyone who reads a book knows the author's name. Well, nearly everyone. But people who see films hardly ever know who wrote the script.

Undoubtedly there is no harm done in not knowing but it does seem like scriptwriters do deserve a little more general acclaim. For now, they usually have to rely on their peers for appreciation.

One of the latest Brits to get the nod from his rivals - sorry, colleagues - is Christopher Hampton who will pick yup the Hollywood Screenwriter Of The Year Award at the Hollywood Film Festival in Los Angeles in October.

Hampton was born to British parents in Azores (Portugal) in 1946 and lived in some unusual places - Aden, Egypt and Zanzibar - before reading German and French at Oxford.

He has been in the script trade for nearly three decades, since he made a splash with "The Honorary Consul", played by Michael Caine, based on the novel of the same name by Graham Greene.

He won an Oscar (Best Adapted Screenplay) for "Dangerous Liaisons" in 1989 and returned to Greene-land, penning "The Quiet American", again featuring Caine, in 2002.

Now he is in the news for "Atonement" (starring Keira Knightley, pictured) - a script doubly admirable as it is based on a novel that was generally thought to be unfilmable and yet now seems certain to be in the running for some major prizes in the coming months.

Not bad going for a lad who started off in the middle of the Atlantic. Mind, that may be part of the key to his dual success at home and in Hollywood.

Filed September 12, 2007.