The long awaited autobiography by one of the world's best-loved actors and directors.Richard Attenborough and Diana Hawkins have been friends and colleagues for nearly 50 years.They have now teamed up to write this frank and funny account of their unlikely partnership and his extraordinary life.
Attenborough is the octogenarian celebrity peer, happily married since 1945, describing a lifetime of ceaseless activity as film star, director, producer, company chairman and indefatigable campaigner.
Hawkins, 70, a twice divorced author and single parent who lived for a time on benefits, went on to become Attenborough’s publicist, business partner and, ultimately, his co-producer.
He is staunch Labour, she is a committed Conservative.His glass is always half full, hers obstinately half empty.
Together, laughing and squabbling, they have travelled the world, meeting people and making films.Among the eclectic cast of characters who appear in this two-handed memoir are Steve McQueen, Mother Teresa, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Mugabe, Edward G Robinson, Shirley MacLaine, Ronald Reagan, David Lean, Margaret Thatcher, John Mills, Steven Spielberg, Noel Coward, Tommy Lawton, Indira Gandhi, George Brown and Nelson Mandela.
Prompted by his adventures in the movie business, Attenborough goes on to reflect on the highs and lows of a long life, both in and out of the public gaze.He writes revealingly of his passion for football and politics, of his avuncular relationship with Princess Diana and finally about the tsunami tragedy which engulfed his family in December 2004.
Author Biography
Famous for more than sixty film performances, beginning in wartime with
In Which We Serve and continuing with such classics as
Brighton Rock,
The Angry Silence,
10 Rillington Place,
The Great Escape, Miracle on 34th Street and Spielberg's
Jurassic Park, Richard Attenborough has always fought tenaciously for the survival of British cinema.As a producer/director he has also been the driving force behind
Gandhi,
Oh! What a Lovely War,
A Bridge Too Far,
Cry Freedom and
Shadowlands.
The elder brother of eminent naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, and husband of actress, Sheila Sim, he was knighted in 1976, appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in 1987 and became a life peer in 1993.He has chaired numerous professional organisations including Channel 4 Television and the British Film Institute and, over the years, has worked tirelessly for a wide range of British and international charities.
Diana Hawkins, formerly a broadcaster and latterly a film producer, wrote the storyline for
Chaplin and, as Diana Carter, three novels and a children's book.She is currently an executive director of Dragon International Studios, a company chaired by Richard Attenborough, which is building a new film making facility in South Wales.
Reviews
Actor and director Richard Attenborough is a giant of British cinema - and one of the best connected men in the world of showbusiness ... Now he's telling his extraordinary story ... Moving and enthralling,One of the most readable and entertaining showbusiness memoirs I have read,Richard Attenborough, with his long-term collaborator Diana Hawkins, has written a highly entertaining memoir,
Entirely Up to You Darling. Despite its self-mocking title, it offers an insightful account of professional triumphs and personal tragedy,There is, in Attenborough’s life, as arresting a sense of narrative as in his films,They make for enjoyable reading because Attenborough has had such a rich and varied life,Classic Attenborough ... So riveting that I was up till 2am reading it,Marvellously readable. Attenborough’s passion reverberates on the page and the stories are good,A compelling, self-deprecating and at times puckish memoir… In fact, it’s in a superior biographical league due to the fact that Attenborough and Hawkins have, with remarkable modesty and assiduousness, top-loaded it with information you actually want to know,Richard Attenborough’s autobiography is the most compelling you’ll read all year.The narrative is packed with big name anecdotes and insights into acting, film making, family life, love and personal tragedy. It’s funny, entertaining and very moving.
