Actor David Weston's book Covering McKellen about working as an understudy to Sir Ian McKellen at the RSC has won the 2012 Theatre Book Prize from the Society for Theatre Research.
The prize was awarded by actor Zoë Wanamaker in the grand saloon of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 25 April to a nonplussed Weston, taking time out to receive his prize from rehearsals for All Good Men by Trevor Griffiths, which opens at the Finborough Theatre on 29 April.
The book was one of three that were published last year by new publishing house Ricksaw Publishing for its launch.
The other shortlisted publications were Black ad Asian Theatre in Britain: A History by Colin Chambers, The Censorship of British Drama 1900-1968 Volume 3: The Fifties by Steve Nicholson, A Dancer in Wartime by Gillian Lynne, The Heaviest of Swells: A Live and Times in the Music Halls by Christopher Beeching and Ira Aldridge: The Early Years 1807-1833 and The Vagabond Years 1833-1852 by Bernth Lindfors.