Author Description

"John Gielgud wrote letters almost every day of his adult life. Whether at home in London and later in Buckinghamshire, or acting abroad or on location, he delighted in sitting down each day and recounting what had been going on and what he felt about events around him." "Not long before his death aged ninety-six in May 2000, he was still writing in an increasingly idiosyncratic and minuscule hand, which he confessed even he required a magnifying glass to read." "Through the letters, which begin with those to his mother, we meet a man who delights in gossip, in describing what he sees and experiences." "Here for the first time - and not previously available to biographers - are some of Gielgud's love letters. They show that he was not shy in expressing the intimacies of personal relationship." "Gielgud had a reputation for speaking his mind, and this is evident as he writes about his contemporaries, including the great actors of the period: Olivier, Richardson, Redgrave, Peggy Asticroft, Edith Evans and the like."--BOOK JACKET.