Put down your baubles …

…and pick up a book

After a hectic season of spud roasting and bottle-opening what better way than to relax than with a good book.

There is often a flurry of biographies and autobiographies out in time for present buying because, read them or not, books make a good gift—especially if provided with the receipt just in case.

In no particular order, books of that ilk that have appeared on my radar this year are:

  • Laurence Olivier & Vivien Leigh – The Final Curtain by David Barry promises a detailed account of the 1957 European tour of Titus Andronicus, the first time a British Shakespearean company performed beyond the Iron Curtain and the last time Olivier and Leigh were to work together (Acorn Books, an imprint of Andrews UK Ltd)
  • Elizabeth Taylor’s Kiss and Other Brushes with Hollywood by actor, writer, playwright, composer and magician David Wood OBE, he of everything from the RSC to Play Away and writing The Queen’s Handbag to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday (The Book Guild ISBN 9781914471902).
  • Round in Circles: The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel by Barry Kester, a history of a show that shines a light on its creators (i2i Publishing).
  • On Acting …and life is the second book by William B Davis, part memoir and part master class, and modelled on Stephen King’s On Writing; Davis is known as the Cigarette Smoking Man on TV’s The X-Files and more recently The Midnight Club on Netflix.
  • Which Way to Love? the first part of his autobiography by actor-turned-novelist Roland Curram who came out as gay in middle age and following the breakdown of his marriage to actress Sheila Gish (New Generation Publishing ISBN 9781803699882).
  • The Best of the West End: The Life and Work of Frith Banbury by Charles Duff mixes scholarship and gossip in its look at British theatre in the mid- to late twentieth century through the career of actor, producer and director Frith Banbury, who crossed paths with everyone from Rattigan to Richardson (ISBN: 9781838032487).
  • See You at the Premiere: Life at the Arse End of Showbiz by Ross Smith is the memoir, writing handbook, insider’s guide, cultural history, and self-help book for anyone who still thinks working in the industry is glamorous (Gordon Bennett Publishing ISBN: 978-1-5272-9225-3).
  • My Dogs, My Life is by Mike Sanger, born into a sixth-generation circus family and the great-great-great grandson of a celebrated Victorian showman he realised his destiny as a dog (and sometime horse) trainer and performer live, in films and television (The Book Guild ISBN 9781913913786).
  • Emily Mann: Rebel Artist of the American Theater by Alexis Greene. Emily Mann is an American Tony-winning artistic director, playwright and director who overcame sexism, a traumatic assault and illness to carve out a successful career (Applause Books).
  • It Don’t Mean A Thing if it Ain’t Got that Zing! is Colin Copperfield's showbiz life told with self-deprecating, naughtiness.
  • Deep Are the Roots: Trailblazers Who Changed Black British Theatre by Stephen Bourne (History Press).
  • A Stinging Delight: A Memoir by David Storey (Faber) both these last two shortlisted for the Society for Theatre Research Theatre Book Prize 2022.

Books that are not biographies or autobiographies (or recipe books)…

Starting with the winner of and two shortlisted titles for the Society for Theatre Research Theatre Book Prize 2022:

  • Stirring up Sheffield: An insider’s account of the battle to build the Crucible Theatre by Colin George and Tedd George (Wordville) winner of the Society for Theatre Research Theatre Book Prize 2022.
  • Brickwork: A Biography of the Arches by David Bratchpiece and Kirstin Innes (Salamander Street) shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2022.
  • Towards a Civic Theatre by Dan Hutton (Salamander Street) shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2022.
  • Signal Fires – Six Notebooks recounts the creation of an open source performance and storytelling project that emerged in and because of the pandemic, and shares short plays, monologues, prose and poems with an invitation to tell a story to others.
  • Solo Transformation On Stage — a life-changing journey, a guide to create a dynamic solo performance using Stanislavski's Method of Physical Actions chart, written by Ronald Rand.
  • A Practical Guide to Puppetry by Mark Down is what it says on the tin, a collection of eighty exercises for improvising, training, designing and directing puppetry with objects, simple puppets and puppets with mechanisms, and featuring 400 illustrations (The Crowood Press).
  • The Power Of Acting is by Josephine Larsen, performer, acting coach and co-founder of theatre companies, Trans Form Theatre and Heart’s Tongue (Clink Street).

And finally some novels …

  • The See-Saw Tree is a novel for children by David Wood based on his play of the same name. This story of the natural world has linocut illustrations by Joanna Padfield (The Book Guild ISBN 9781914471070).
  • The Empire is the début novel of musical theatre star Michael Ball; a story set in the England of the 1920s in a fictional theatre with the second story due to be published in October 2023.
  • Death on the Pier is the début novel from Jamie West in which hero, murder mystery playwright Bertie Carroll, turns detective at a theatre based on The Palace Pier Theatre, Brighton; West has worked backstage in London’s West End for over 15 years.