Amanda Whittington

Amanda Whittington is a playwright. She is perhaps best known for Be My Baby, which is set in 1963 and tells the story of four young women in an unmarried-mother and baby home. First staged in 1998, Be My Baby has been produced across the world and is a GCSE and A-level theatre studies recommended text.

Amanda’s recent plays include The Thrill of Love (New Vic Theatre, 2013), The Dug Out (Splice Theatre, 2013) and an adaptation of the Susie Boyt memoir My Judy Garland Life, produced by Nottingham Playhouse in 2014. Her plays Ladies’ Day and Ladies Down Under have enjoyed national tours and are widely performed across the country. She is published by Nick Hern Books. Amanda is also an experienced radio dramatist, with numerous credits for BBC Radio 4. Recent plays include The Dock, Nuremberg; The Nine Days’ Queen and Paradise Place. She contributes most regularly to the Woman’s Hour serial and Afternoon Play slots.

Alongside her own writing, Amanda has run many creative-writing workshops.  For four years, she was a mentor on Theatre Writing Partnership’s Momentum young writers’ scheme. Prior to her playwrighting career, Amanda was a freelance journalist, contributing to a range of titles and publications including the Guardian,the Face and New Statesman. In the 1990s, she was a regular columnist for Nottingham Evening Post. She is an active member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, chairing the theatre committee from 2011 until 2013. She lives in Nottingham.