The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw |
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Sheila Hancock
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Pages: 320 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0747577099
Pub: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Pub date: 2005-06-06
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2804
Reader Reviews:
The Two of Us by Sheila Hancock (0/0 people found this helpful)
I have just listened to the audio version of this book and was deeply moved. It was very interesting to hear about her life and John Thaws life in the industry, but the sections inbetween when she documents his illness, death and her life after was so moving. My father died last year and my mother was married for over 50 years during which they were inseperable. This book has given me some idea how she is feeling at the moment and I intend to buy it for her as birthday present. Sheila has gone through such sorrow all her life with the spector of cancer destroying many people close to her. Sheila read the book and you can feel the strengh of feeling through her words. Grumpy old woman you are not Sheila.
Beneath the facade! (1/1 people found this helpful)
What a book. Just shows you that what you see on the screen and read in the papers more often than not is not what is real. This book was one of those that had you chuckling, crying and gasping. John Thaw really was a very complex, and sometimes disturbed man. A must read for all!
Wonderful (1/1 people found this helpful)
This is a wonderful book and that is entirely due to the quality that Sheila Hancock has brought to it. From its conception as a biography of two people (or is that two biographies?) to its conclusion as a memoir of a difficult but loving relationship and the challenge of coping with loss (and Hancock has lost two husbands under the same circumstances) this book rises well above the level of celebrity biography to be a real affirmation of life. Packed with reminiscences of life in the entertainment industry, with dozens of characters encountered en-route, and well-chosen photos to supplement the delicately constructed narrative, this book is a candid account of the lives of two of Britain's finest actors. Beyond that, it is a book of courage and fortitude.
Touching (3/5 people found this helpful)
If you have a heart this book will make you cry. Very touchingly Sheila Hancock tells the story of two people who were destined for each other just took their time to find each other. The story is made only more poignant by all the ups and downs they went through together knowing that not being together is not an option. Thaw is revealed as a very complex person both as a man and as an actor. Hancock tends to be too modest about herself that's the only flaw I can detect in this book. Her reading the love story of her life is almost heartbreaking. The book is also very well composed in terms of starting with a description of their separate lives juxtaposed by Thaw's dying and then merging into one stream of narration. But be warned: this is not sentimentality, this is about real emotions and there is no happy end.
A Moving Story of Two Actors (44/45 people found this helpful)
I didnt really know what to expect when I started to read this double biography of Sheila Hancock and her husband John Thaw. At the end, I had to admit to myself that I had just read one of the best, most moving biographies in many years. Sheila tells her story of not only her life in the acting profession, but also that of her husband John who is now acknowledged as one of the most popular actors of his generation. She certainly pulls no punches; detailing her slow rise to fame as an actress herself, making her name in the long running comedy show "The Rag Trade". Her first marriage to Alec who died tragically young from cancer, the same cancer which was to kill her second husband John, and the long and difficult years during the late 1980s and 1990s when she fought to keep her marriage together despite John Thaw's battle with alcoholism, (which he eventually won) and his constant depressions. It is not just a story about success in their lives together taking into account the long running ever popular Inspector Morse, and eventually Kavanagh QC, but also a story of tragedy as Sheila lost family and friends through illnesses culminating in the death of her husband John during February 2002. Then she had to adjust her life living through lonliness depsite her family and loyal friends, but as she herself explained in this remarkable book, her life would always feel empty after losing her beloved John.
Those readers who enjoy a good biography should read this. Its profoundly moving at times, full of laughs, sadness, joys, triumphs and tragedy. A human story about two actors who loved each other deeply and are much admired even today with constant reruns of Morse, Kavanagh QC, and Sheila of course, still acts today much to the joy of her many fans and admirers.
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Books -> Subjects -> Biography -> Film, Television & Music -> General AAS
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