User:Budhen/sandbox

Nunn was born in Ipswich, England, to Robert Alexander Nunn, a cabinetmaker, and Dorothy May Piper. As a small boy he loved reading but they had little money for books. However an aunt had more books, including a complete Shakespeare which he devoured whenever the family visited her. In the end she gave it to him.

He was educated at Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich and Downing College, Cambridge. At Northgate he had an inspiring English teacher, Peter Hewett, who also directed the school plays. Hewett encouraged him to sit the scholarship exam in Cambridge in the hope of studying under F R Leavis at Downing. Hewett also persuaded the headmaster to help with the cost of Nunn staying in Cambridge to take the exam. Nunn's father could not afford it and the headmaster had refused at first so Nunn was close to giving up. At Downing, Nunn began his stage career and first met contemporaries Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. In 1962 he directed Macbeth for The Marlowe Society and he directed that year's Footlights. He also won a Director's Scholarship, becoming a trainee director at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.