Wolf Mankowitz

He is particularly known for four novels— Make Me an Offer (1952), A Kid for Two Farthings (1953), My Old Man's a Dustman[citation needed] and Expresso Bongo (1958)—and other plays, historical studies, and the screenplays for many successful films which have received awards including the Oscar, Bafta and the Cannes Grand Prix.

In 1958 he wrote the book for the West End musical Expresso Bongo[1] which was adapted into a film starring Cliff Richard and Laurence Harvey the following year.

[citation needed] Mankowitz's script for Anthony Asquith's film The Millionairess (1960), based on the 1936 play by George Bernard Shaw and starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers, was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best screenplay.

During the late 1960s he was part-owner of the Pickwick Club in Great Newport Street, off Charing Cross Road in central London, where the Peddlers, a pop group led by Roy Phillips, were resident.

[citation needed] Files placed in the public domain during August 2010 revealed that for a decade after the Second World War, Mankowitz was suspected by security service MI5 of being a communist agent.