Maggie Smith: A Biography
by Coveney, Michael
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 1474600239
- ISBN 13
- 9781474600231
- Seller
-
Bromsgrove, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015 9781474600231. Hardback. First edition. Fine/Fine. Like new. No inscriptions or annotations. The DW is not price clipped. Illustrated in colour and in monochrome. 353 pages. WINNER OF BEST MEMOIR AT THE WOMAN & HOME READERS' CHOICE AWARDS 2016 AND A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK. Michael Coveney is one of the country's most respected writers on theatre. Formerly staff critic for the Financial Times, the Observer and the Daily Mail, he has since 2006 been associated with the leading West End website WhatsOnStage.com. He has unprecedented access to Dame Maggie Smith's personal archives and curated the recent BFI season of her film and television work. No one does glamour, severity, girlish charm or tight-lipped witticism better than Dame Maggie Smith, one of Britain's best-loved actors. This new biography shines the stage-lights on the life and work of a truly remarkable performer, one whose career spans six decades. From her days as a star of West End comedy and revue, Dame Maggie's path would cross with those of the greatest actors, playwrights and directors of the era. Whether stealing scenes from Richard Burton (by his own admission), answering back to Laurence Olivier, or impressing Ingmar Bergman, her career can be seen as a Who's Who of British theatre in the twentieth century. This book also covers her success in Hollywood, inaugurated by her first Oscar for her signature film, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, as well as her subsequent departure to Canada for a prolific four-season run of leading theatre roles. Recently Dame Maggie has been as prominent on our screens as ever, with high-profile roles as Violet Crawley, the formidable Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the phenomenally successful television series Downton Abbey, and as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film franchise: what she herself describes as 'Miss Jean Brodie in a wizard's hat'. Yet paradoxically she remains an enigmatic figure, rarely appearing in public and carefully guarding her considerable talent. Michael Coveney's absorbing biography, drawing on personal archives, interviews and encounters with the actress, as well as conversations with immediate family and dear friends, is therefore as close as it gets to seeing the real Maggie Smith. .
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Details
- Bookseller
- David Edward Hellawell (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 2159
- Title
- Maggie Smith: A Biography
- Author
- Coveney, Michael
- Book Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 1474600239
- ISBN 13
- 9781474600231
- Publisher
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015 9781474600231
- Place of Publication
- London
- This edition first published
- 2015
- Keywords
- Maggie Smith Acting Stage Screen Film. Roles. Comedy Tragedy Theatre Television QSE
Terms of Sale
David Edward Hellawell
I will refund the cost if the book is returned within 7 days with details of where the description was faulty.
About the Seller
David Edward Hellawell
Biblio member since 2007
Bromsgrove, West Midlands
About David Edward Hellawell
Professor Emeritus now selling off the stock of a lifetime.
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