This collection of Christopher Hampton's screenplays includes his two best-known films, Carrington (winner of a Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1995) and Dangerous Liaisons (winner of an Academy Award), as well as three works never before published: The Custom of the Country, A Bright Shining Lie and Mary Reilly.

Christopher Hampton's entertaining introductions to each of the screenplays published here chart the circuitous routes by which his films have, or have not, been made.