Only By Failure: The Many Faces of the Impossible Life of Terence Gray

Only By Failure is a biography of Terence Gray. He was an Irish aristocrat who in the Twenties became an Egyptologist and historian, writing books of short plays based on Ancient Egypt and the early history of Ireland. He co-founded the Cambridge Festival Theatre in 1926 and followed the inspiration of Gordon Craig. Actors there included Maurice Evans, Robert Donat, Flora Robson and Jessica Tandy. Ninette de Valois (Gray's cousin) began her career there. In 1933 Gray's interest in the theatre ended and he moved to France, to become Wei Wu Wei and he wrote eight books in his own style of Zen Buddhism.