Charles Osborne

Charles Thomas Osborne (24 November 192723 September 2017) was an Australian journalist, theatre and opera critic, poet and novelist. He was the assistant editor of The London Magazine from 1958 until 1966, literature director of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1971 until 1986, and chief theatre critic of Daily Telegraph (London) from 1986 to 1991.

He is the only author the Agatha Christie Estate has ever allowed to produce adapted works in her name.

Life and career Osborne was born in Brisbane, Australia. He taught himself to play the piano and at age 18 he began singing lessons.

Selected works General Kafka, Oliver & Boyd, London 1967 Swansong (poems), Shenval Press, London 1968 The Opera House Album, Robson Books 1979 W. H. Auden: The Life of a Poet, Methuen, London 1980 Letter to W. H. Auden and Other Poems, Calder Publications 1984 Giving it Away (memoirs), Secker & Warburg, London 1986 Black Coffee (Agatha Christie), Collins Crime, London 1998 The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, HarperCollins, London 1982, updated 1999 Spider's Web (Agatha Christie), HarperCollins, London 1999 The Unexpected Guest (Agatha Christie), HarperCollins, London 2000 Murder in Three Stages (Agatha Christie), HarperCollins, London 2007

Music The Complete Operas of Verdi, Victor Gollancz, London 1969 Wagner and his World, Thames & Hudson, London 1977 The Complete Operas of Puccini, Victor Gollancz, London 1981 How to Enjoy Opera, Piatkus, London 1982 The Dictionary of Opera, Macdonald & Co, London, 1983 The Complete Operas of Wagner, Victor Gollancz, London 1990 The Complete Operas of Strauss, Victor Gollancz, London 1992 The Complete Operas of Mozart, Victor Gollancz, London 1992 The Bel Canto Operas, Methuen Publishing Ltd, London 1994 The Opera Lover's Companion, Yale University Press