A Positively Final Appearance (Windsor Selections S.) - Hardcover

Guinness, Alec

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754013464 ISBN 13: 9780754013464

Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C, 2000

Synopsis

Following the enormous success of MY NAME ESCAPES ME, this is Alec Guinness's journal of the eighteen months after the summer of 1996. These were tumultuous times for the nation - the death of Diana, the arrival of New Labour - but other matters hold equal weight in Hampshire: the Hale-Bopp comet, the dying plane tree, the vulnerability of the hassocks in Steep Church ... Sir Alec reports on local and national matters with varying degrees of acerbity and affection, and also muses fascinatingly on books, films and the theatre.

About this title

Review

There is something wonderfully perverse about Alec Guinness publishing his diaries. He is, after all, one of those actors who made his mark precisely by obliterating his own personality in favour of conjuring up, chameleon-like, a host of vivid characters on film, stage and television. Asked what Alec Guinness is like in real life, most people would not dare venture an opinion. But with his journal My Name Escapes Me (and it's a telling title), Guinness has found new fame at 82, with his lucid, mild-mannered yet often insightful ponderings on his own life (failing eyesight, well, failing everything, really), unselfconsciously woven with more national and universal concerns. Now, with A Positively Final Appearance, we get a second instalment, covering the years 1996 to 1998, which saw personal triumphs over that eye trouble and political upheaval with the death of Diana and the birth of Blair. We're drawn into a gentler, more refined world, where teasing and sardonic appraisals of the arts, past and present, are interlaced with memories of old friends (and when they include Garbo, Noel Coward and Wallis Windsor, why not?) Guinness is well cast as the seasoned, genial raconteur looking back at the end of a long life. But A Positively Final Appearance? Somehow, I doubt it.--Alan Stewart

About the Author

Born in London in 1914, Sir Alec Guinness is one of the outstanding actors of his generation. Among his famous films are Kind Hearts and Coronets, Oliver Twist and Star Wars.

His two books BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE and MY NAMES ESCAPES ME are both published by Penguin. He lives in Hampshire.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754013464
• ISBN 13: 9780754013464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360