Gielgud's Letters: John Gielgud in His Own Words Book

John Gielgud wrote letters almost every day of his adult life. Whether at home in London and later Buckinghamshire, or acting abroad or on location, he delighted in sitting down each morning and recounting what had been going on and what he felt about events around him. He was still writing just a few days before his death aged 96 in May 2000. His letters are treasured by the recipients and the problem for the editor will be in selection. He wrote in an increasingly idiosyncratic hand on specially made paper with an embossed letter-heading ? he carried voluminous supplies around with him wherever he went. Through the letters, which begin with several hundred to his mother spread through the 1920s through to the second world war, Gielgud gives an enthralling picture of the life of an actor and other talents of the period: Olivier, Redgrave, Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans and the like. In films there?s a sharp portrait of the young Alfred Hitchcock. Nor, says the editor, is Gielgud shy of saying what he thinks. Here is great letter-writing before the age of e-mail.Read More