Thomas Wiseman

Thomas Wiseman (born Alphons Weissmann, Vienna, 1931) is a British author, playwright and screenwriter.

Thomas Wiseman was born in Vienna in 1931 of Jewish parentage. He escaped to England with his mother in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war. His father, an officer in the First World War, had arranged their escape with his contacts in high places, but he remained behind, believing he could rely on these "contacts" to protect him. In this he was ultimately to be proved mistaken, and he died in Buchenwald concentration camp. Elements of this story have feature in three of Wiseman's novels, The Quick and the Dead, Journey of A Man, The Time Before the War, and in his play The Dealer.

After the war Wiseman began his career in journalism, aged 16, on a London local newspaper, the West London Observer, where he worked as a reporter and wrote film, theatre and book reviews. These got him banned from press showings for the critics, but also brought him to the attention of Lord Beaverbrook. As a result, he was hired by the London Evening Standard to write their showbiz column.

Reviewing Wiseman's first novel, Czar, in the Sunday Times Frederic Raphael wrote: "Thomas Wiseman used to be the columnist the film companies wouldn't have on the set, so savage (and so right?) were his judgements. It was said that he was a dagger pointed at the industry." This novel drew on Wiseman's knowledge of Hollywood and the film business, and its commercial success enabled him to work full-time on writing books.

His second novel, Journey of A Man, and his third novel, The Quick and the Dead, focused on his family history, especially his father's activities in Vienna under the Nazis seeking to ransom Jews able to pay for their lives. The Quick and the Dead earned him a Jewish Chronicle Book Award. The TLS wrote of it: "...a harshly funny and effective study of Nazi self-delusion and atrocity...brilliantly achieved."

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