And Furthermore
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ISBN10: 1250002141
ISBN13: 9781250002143
Trade Paperback
288 Pages
$19.99
CA$25.99
From London's glittering West End to Broadway's bright lights, from her Academy Award-winning role as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love to "M" in the James Bond films, Judi Dench has treated audiences to some of the greatest performances of our time. She made her professional acting debut in 1957 with England's Old Vic theatre company playing Ophelia in Hamlet, Katherine in Henry V (her New York debut), and then, Juliet. In 1961, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company playing Anya in The Cherry Orchard with John Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft. In 1968, she went beyond the classical stage to become a sensation as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, adding musical comedy to her repertoire. Over the years, Dench has given indelible performances in the classics as well as some of the greatest plays and musicals of the twentieth century including Noël Coward's Hay Fever, Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, Kaufman and Hart's The Royal Family and David Hare's Amy's View (for which she won the Tony Award).
Recently, she made a triumphant return to A Midsummer Night's Dream as Titania, a role she first played in 1962, now played as a theatre-besotted Queen Elizabeth I. Her film career has been filled with unforgettable performances of some unforgettable women: Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown, the terrifying schoolteacher Barbara Covett in Notes on a Scandal and the writer Iris Murdoch in Iris. And, for the BBC, Dench created another unforgettable woman when she brought her great comic timing and deeply felt emotions to the role of Jean Pargetter in the long-running BBC series As Time Goes By.
And Furthermore is, however, more than the story of a great actress's career. It is also the story of Judi Dench's life: her early days as a child in a family that was in love with the theatre; her marriage to actor Michael Williams; the joy she takes in her daughter, the actress Finty Williams, and her grandson, Sammy. Filled with Dench's impish sense of humor, diamond-sharp intelligence and photos from her personal archives, And Furthermore is the book every admirer and student of the great Judi Dench will cherish.
Reviews
Praise for And Furthermore
"Ms. Dench's sense of humor is on full display . . . readers will walk away with a keen sense of her philosophy on life: take your art seriously, but never yourself."—The New York Times
"With a fifty-plus-year career on the boards, the author (she freely admits she couldn't have possibly written a book, so she dictated this one to her earlier biographer, John Miller, but her voice comes through loud and clear, with projection quality to reach what the Yanks call the second balcony) dispenses a thorough review of everything she's done professionally, on stage, TV, and screen . . . She has acted in plays by Chekhov, Coward, and Shakespeare, and is indeed intent upon bringing the Bard to the masses, although she doesn't care for all his plays . . . D.J.D. is a (most worthy) standard-bearer for the theater, of that magic that can only happen between live performers and an audience. If I were teaching a theatre class, this book would be required reading."—David Marshall James, Shine from Yahoo!
"Much of her crisp intelligence is there on the page alongside her puckish sense of humor and her evident goodness."—The Daily Mail (UK)
"Dame Judi Dench's memoir is highly amusing . . . You are left in no doubt that Dame Judi loves to have fun, that laughter is her oxygen."—The Guardian (UK)
"In this warmhearted memoir, actress Judi Dench brings such a fresh and natural reaction as she describes her roles . . . on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and on Broadway."—Publishers Weekly
