Sybil Thorndike: A Star of Life - Hardcover

Jonathan Croall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1905791925 ISBN 13: 9781905791927

Publisher: Haus Publishing Limited, 2008

Synopsis

Sybil Thorndike was one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century. Loved and admired as a great actress, she was also a feminist, a socialist and a pacifist, who fought throughout her long life for a better and more peaceful world.As a young actress she spent three years barnstorming round America, playing over a hundred Shakespearean parts. Throughout the First World War she led the Old Vic company under its formidable manager Lilian Baylis, while bringing up four young children. She introduced Greek tragedy to the West End, and became a household name with Saint Joan, a part Bernard Shaw wrote especially for her. In the Second World War she embarked upon trail-blazing tours of the mining areas of Wales, afterwards witnessing the devastation of post-war Europe with a company headed by Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, and later touring the world with her celebrated poetry recitals.With unique access to her family's archive, and using hundreds of unpublished letters, Jonathan Croall - author of the much-praised "Gielgud: A Theatrical Life" - has produced an engaging, sympathetic but critical account of the vicar's daughter who became a celebrated actress and public figure. Through interviews with over a hundred actors, directors and playwrights, and extended conversations with members of her family, he has pinned down in absorbing and entertaining detail Sybil Thorndike's larger-than-life, unstoppable personality. He reveals the intense, often violent nature of her relationship on and off stage with her husband, the actor and director Lewis Casson, and her struggles to combine motherhood with a glittering stage career and support for innumerable causes, great and small.

About this title

Review:

‘Jonathan Croall’s handsomely produced and meticulously researched biography reminds us of the rich and glorious life of a great actress and a hugely attractive human being...I found it far more engaging and enjoyable than Michael Holroyd’s recent trawl through the torridly eventful saga of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving’ – Rupert Christiansen, Literary Review ‘The impression of a great actress and a glowing spirit shines through this richly absorbing chronicle’ – Alan Strachan, Spectator ‘A fine biography, enlivened by Thorndike's copious correspondence to family and friends... It is hard to imagine a more engaging portrait of a woman whom A.P.Herbert rightly described as 'a star of life'’ - Michael Arditti, Daily Mail ‘It is as an intimate picture of the British theatre scene and its leading lights over one of its golden ages that this book will be treasured’ – Ian Herbert, Stage ‘This marvellous and erudite biography succeeds in capturing a remarkable actress and idealist, whose human generosity and vitality were legendary’ – Patrick Garland, The Oldie ‘It gives any reader with an interest in theatre history an immediate and colourful insight into what for many is a rather sepia and dusty theatrical past’ – Robert Bathurst, Tablet ‘The definitive biography of this stupendous life force – a woman who never lost hope that a better society was possible’ – Illtyd Harrington, Camden Journal ‘magisterial...superb...a great biography’ – Brian McFarlane, Australian Book Review

'Croall has written a fine biography, enlivened by Thorndike's copious correspondence to family and friends. The book inevitably suffers by comparison with Michael Holroyd's recent study of Ellen Terry since, while Thorndike was by all accounts the greater actress, she did not define her era in the same way.' (Michael Arditti Daily Mail 2008-11-14)

'It's a beautiful book about a beautiful person... It makes for a very rich and varied read' (Peter Hall)

‘superb biography’ ‘Jonathan Croall’s magisterial biography (the equal of his Gielgud [2001]) not only persuades us of her individual pre-eminence but conveys as well the sense of a career’s encapsulating a history of much twentieth-century British theatre. And not just in Britain but also in such far-flung outposts as the Middle East, South Africa and Australia’ (The Australian Book Review)

'A riveting and wonderfully sympathetic account of a great actress and a remarkable woman, which vividly captures her life offstage as well as in the theatre' (Polly Toynbee)

'...here is Jonathan Croall's handsomely produced and meticulously researched biography to remind us of the rich and glorious life of a great actress and a hugely attractive human being...its subject's charm and vitality radiate such illuminating force that I found it far more engaging and enjoyable than Michael Holroyd's recent trawl through the torridly eventful sage of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving.' (Rupert Christiansen The Literary Review 2009-02-00)

About the Author:

Jonathan Croall was an editor in publishing and newspapers before becoming a full-time writer. His books include Gielgud: A Theatrical Life; The Coming of Godot: A Short History of a Masterpiece; Buzz Buzz! Playwrights, Actors and Directors at the National Theatre; and in the series 'The National Theatre at Work', Hamlet Observed, Peter Hall's 'Bacchai', and Inside the Molly House. He currently edits the programmes at the Old Vic.

About this edition

• Publisher: Haus Publishing Limited
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1905791925
• ISBN 13: 9781905791927
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 550