Pagnamenta, Peter 1941-

PERSONAL: Born April 12, 1941, in Oxford, England; son of Charles Francis and Daphne Isabel Pagnamenta; married Sybil Healy, April 13, 1966; children: Zoe and Robin. Education: Cambridge University, M.A., 1963.

ADDRESSES: Home— London, England.

CAREER: Television producer and writer. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), script writer, 1964-65, assistant producer of Tonight, 1965, producer of 24 Hours, 1966, producer in New York office, 1968, editor of 24 Hours, 1971, editor of Midweek, 1972, editor of Panorama, 1975, producer of All Our Working Lives (ten-part series), editor of Real Lives series, 1984; head of Current Affairs Group Television, 1985, producer of Nippon, 1990, producer of People’s Century (twenty-six-part series), 1995-99; Pagnamenta Associates, founder, 1997.

AWARDS, HONORS: Shell Award; Industrial Journalism Award; British Film Institute Archive Award; National Viewers and Listeners Award; International Emmy, 1996, and Peabody Award, 1997, both for People’s Century.

WRITINGS

(With Richard Overy) All Our Working Lives, British Broadcasting Corporation (London, England), 1984.

(Editor) The Hidden Hall: Portrait of a Cambridge College, Third Millennium (London, England), 2004.3

(With Momoko Williams) Sword and Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman, Penguin Press (New York, NY), 2006, also published as Falling Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman, Century (London, England), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Peter Pagnamenta is a television producer and author who collaborated with Momoko Williams to write Sword and Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman, which was published in England as Falling Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman. The book tells of the romance between a British career officer, Arthur Hart-Synnot, and Masa Suzuki, the daughter of a Tokyo barber. Based largely on love letters from Arthur to Masa that were discovered in 1982, Sword and Blossom recounts how the two met in Tokyo in 1904 when Arthur was sent on an assignment to Japan, and continues the story to their ultimate separation. Although the two eventually have two sons together, Masa refuses to marry Arthur and the two of them are often separated as Arthur receives various assignments throughout the world. A Kirkus Reviews contributor referred to Sword and Blossom as “a polished account that segues elegantly from a personal saga to a larger cultural history.” A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the authors “offer a deeply sympathetic portrayal of this doomed longdistance romance.” In a review in the Library Journal, Charles W. Hayford wrote: “This is grand history on a human scale, vivid and sweeping.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

BOOKS

Pagnamenta, Peter, and Momoko Williams, Sword and Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman, Penguin Press (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Entertainment Weekly, June 16, 2006, Tim Purtell, review of Sword and Blossom, p. 79.

Europe Intelligence Wire, June 17, 2006, review of Falling Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman.

Guardian (London, England), May 13, 2006, Anthony Thwaite, review of Falling Blossom.

Independent (London, England), July 23, 2006, Charlie Lee-Potter, review of Falling Blossom.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2006, review of Sword and Blossom, p. 338.

Library Journal, June 1, 2006, Charles W. Hayford, review of Sword and Blossom, p. 136.

Publishers Weekly, April 17, 2006, review of Sword and Blossom, p. 182.

ONLINE

PBS Web site, http://www.pbs.org/ (November 28, 2006), brief profile of author.