"A magical love letter to Shakespeare" - Kenneth Branagh
"A literary demonstration of how the iconic actor has lost none of her energy, flair, and fiery intelligence... Dench’s memoir of the roles she has loved is a witty, thoroughly entertaining romp through the Shakespearean world." - Kirkus (starred review)
"...it’s a mark of Dench’s impish genius and O’Hea’s deftness that it genuinely feels like you’re sitting at her kitchen table with her. It’s companionable and compelling – if you love Judi Dench or Shakespeare (and most of us do), look no further." - The Guardian
“…swirls and dances with brilliance and mischief…Judi knows Shakespeare from the inside – she’s who Shakespeare had in mind when he took up his quill. The wisdom here is breath-taking…The book is pure enchantment.” - The Daily Mail (Book of the Week)
“An utterly delightful book…there can be few higher pleasures in civilised life than hearing Judi Dench recite the poetry of Shakespeare…What emerges is a wealth of unpretentious horse sense – Shakespeare from a great actor’s perspective – that repeatedly strikes to the heart of the matter with a sharp instinctive intelligence that puts fancy-pants literary critics to shame.” - The Telegraph
“This is a perceptive read, suffused with Dench’s trademark twinkly-eyed humour…Her lifelong love of these plays, their humanity and universality, is unmistakable, but this is a refreshingly honest, unacademic take…Dench’s scene-by-scene analysis of many works is sharp and her memory for seemingly inconsequential fragments of line-reading or costume, laser-like..” - iNews
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2024-01-13
A literary demonstration of how the iconic actor has lost none of her energy, flair, and fiery intelligence.
These days, Dench (b. 1934) is often thought of as the flinty M of several James Bond movies, but she spent the bulk of her career on the stage, mainly performing Shakespeare plays. In this follow-up to And Furthermore, the author looks back at her experiences via conversations with her fellow actor and close friend Brendan O’Hea. This was necessary because Dench’s eyesight is failing, but her memory is razor-sharp and her knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays is encyclopedic. Her starting point was Macbeth, which remains one of her favorite plays. She also has a liking for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and King Lear, but she has mixed feelings about The Merchant of Venice and Coriolanus. Her first professional role was as Ophelia in Hamlet; later, she played Gertrude. Even at the age of 89, Dench retains an impish sense of humor, and she has plenty of stories about mischief and mayhem behind the scenes. Impressively, she quotes large chunks of various plays from memory. She insists that none of her performances are definitive, and she believes that there are as many interpretations of Shakespearean roles as there are actors. This view underscores her appreciation of the wide-ranging work of the Bard, which she sees as entirely relevant to our era: “Everything you have felt or are yet to feel is all in there in his plays: oppression, ambition, loneliness, remorse, everything….Shakespeare has examined every single emotion….His writing has the capacity to make us feel less alone.” Through these lively conversations, Dench creates a highly satisfying mix of fun, insight, and art.
Dench’s memoir of the roles she has loved is a witty, thoroughly entertaining romp through the Shakespearean world.
