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Gielgud On Gielgud

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780340770894

Price: £7.99

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Sir John Gielgud displayed a remarkable talent for writing as well as performing, publishing several books about his life and profession. This unique volume brings together two of these for the first time: EARLY STAGES, his classic memoir of childhood, of growing up and taking to the stage, with vivid evocations of his family and the people he knew and worked with, from his great aunt Ellen Terry to Noël Coward, Somerset Maugham and Peggy Ashcroft; and BACKWARD GLANCES, a collection of essays in which Gielgud shares memories of a life lived to the full, reflects on a range of theatrical matters, and draws witty and affectionate portraits of friends and colleagues such as Sybil Thorndike, Vivien Leigh and Charles Laughton. Written with grace, erudition, warmth and wit, GIELGUD ON GIELGUD provides an irresistible insight into the world of Sir John Gielgud.

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Reviews

EARLY STAGES: 'A classic of theatrical reminiscence'
Listener
A superb, funny, moving, wonderfully fresh portrait of a young actor finding his feet and making his way in the theatre of the 20s and 30s
James Roose Evans
BACKWARD GLANCES: 'Turning these pages, I feel as though I know what it was like to have been just across the footlights from Ellen Terry, outside a stage door with Bancroft, or even opposite du Maurier at some hostess's dinner table ... skilfully and elegantly written with a delightfully straight-faced wit'
Paul Daneman in The Sunday Times
Gielgud is uniquely qualified to conjure up the exhilarating world of the English theatre. Dinner-party chat, dressing room encounters, whispered asides on stage are all recounted in the familiar voice that is as easy to read as it is to listen to
The Daily Telegraph