Michael Gambon
The Authorised Biography
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Cornerstone
Publishing:29th Oct '26
£30.00
This title is due to be published on 29th October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
*Available for Pre-order now * A major and definitive biography of the beloved actor, full of 150 exclusive interviews with stars including Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Alan Ayckbourn, Brian Cox, Billy Nighy and Jeremy Clarkson
'This book reveals the wonderful man behind some of the greatest roles on stage and screen’ Daniel Radcliffe
Michael Gambon’s rise made little sense. The son of working-class Irish immigrants, he left school with no qualifications and became an apprentice toolmaker in a factory while his future contemporaries studied at drama college or Cambridge. Yet he would emerge as the towering actor of his generation: a performer of unrivalled power and instinctive imagination who could reduce audiences to tears or make them rock with helpless laughter.
Jasper Rees, the Sunday Times bestselling author of Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, interviewed Gambon more than any other journalist alive. Drawing on exclusive access to the Gambon archive, the memories of Michael Gambon’s family and the testimony of more than 150 actors, writers, directors, producers and friends – including Helen Mirren, Daniel Radcliffe, Judi Dench, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton, Alan Ayckbourn, Eileen Atkins, Bill Nighy, David Hare, Lia Williams, Christopher Hampton, Simon Russell Beale, Sonia Friedman, Richard Eyre, Imelda Staunton, Matthew Macfadyen and Jeremy Clarkson – Rees tells the extraordinary story of one of the greatest actors of the last fifty years.
The vast breadth of Michael Gambon’s career took him from spear-carrying in Laurence Olivier’s fledgling National Theatre to epoch-defining performances in The Life of Galileo, A View from the Bridge and Skylight; from many momentous collaborations with Harold Pinter and Alan Ayckbourn to public adulation in The Singing Detective and the Harry Potter films. In following the story through to the last years when he grappled with severe memory loss, his authorised biography takes readers closer than ever before to understanding the real Michael Gambon: a complicated and intensely private man, touched with genius, who was as surprising and elusive when not acting – with his mischievously tall tales, his passion for restoring antique firearms and flying planes – as he was mesmerising on both stage and screen.
Funny, moving and revelatory, Jasper Rees’s masterful and definitive biography peels back...
Press reviews for Jasper Rees's Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood * - *
‘Let’s Do It is a biography that feels as unflinching and true as it is entertaining and affectionate. Rees pulls off the trick of writing a brilliant tribute while also – somehow, almost – bringing Victoria Wood back to life in all her complicated glory’ * Guardian *
‘You can almost feel him riffling files, rewinding tapes, so carefully is it pieced together. Yet the reward is a 360-degree biography that transforms a beloved entertainer into a real human being’ * Sunday Times *
‘This superb biography ensures we can’t forget how revolutionary she was’ * Oldie *
‘Impeccable’ * Daily Telegraph *
‘A joyous read’ * Mail on Sunday *
‘Joyous and revealing... If you're a diehard Wood fan (as I am) you'll find this account of her life wholly engrossing, and it also stands as a wonderful tribute to a pioneering entertainer and her exacting comic genius’ * Bookseller *
‘A joy. It paints a rounded portrait of a genuinely nice and kind woman who could also be difficult, scathing, even ruthless’ * Daily Mail *
‘Rees’s research is wide-ranging and detailed... his analysis is acute and often beautifully articulated’ * i Newspaper *
‘An immersive, authoritative book’ * Spectator *
‘A smashing biography’ * Sunday Express *
‘Packed with enlightening anecdotes and revealing interviews with her family and closest friends. A real treat’ * Independent *
‘This biographer is the safest of hands... It does not feel intrusive because it is so richly fed with the memories of those who properly loved her’ * The Times *
‘Impeccable’ * Daily Telegraph *
Praise from friends and fans of Victoria Wood: * - *
‘This utterly absorbing and beautiful book, written with such insight and kindness, moved me hugely’ * Julie Walters *
‘I would love people to read this beautiful book about the woman I will be forever grateful for in leading the way for me and other women in comedy and for making my life a jollier one’ * Miranda Hart *
‘Jasper Rees has found the perfect words to convey Victoria's brilliance, in this meticulously researched, immersive and entertaining biography' * Alison Steadman *
‘This book is absolutely brilliant. So meticulously researched but also full of warmth and fun’ * Lucy Porter *
ISBN: 9781529963335
Dimensions: 240mm x 156mm x 31mm
Weight: 560g
320 pages