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Overview
“I can hardly believe that it is more than half a century since I first stepped on to the stage of the Old Vic Theatre and into a way of life that has brought me the most rewarding professional relationships and friendships. I cannot imagine now ever doing anything else with my life except acting…” – Judi Dench
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 piercing performances of 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 hit 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 fan of the great Judi Dench will cherish.
Synopsis
"I can hardly believe that it is more than half a century since I first stepped on to the stage of the Old Vic Theatre and into a way of life that has brought me the most rewarding professional relationships and friendships. I cannot imagine now ever doing anything else with my life except acting..." – Judi Dench
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 piercing performances of 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 hit 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 fan of the great Judi Dench will cherish.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Dame Judith Dench cautions readers that this is not a conventional autobiography, but no warning is necessary: And Furthermore replaces inclusiveness with intimacy. Britain's most beloved actress brightens this performance with theatrical story after story, dispensing each with the modulated emotional force that is her forte. Even her account of losing her husband to cancer a decade ago is measured out with equal portions of confession and restraint. A memoir to remember.
From the Publisher
"...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 "In this warmhearted memoir, actress Dench brings such a fresh and natural reaction as she describes her roles...With candor and wit, Dench interweaves her stage presences with her love of playing pranks on fellow actors, on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and on Broadway."--Publishers Weekly
“There ain’t nothing like this Dame!...much of her crisp intelligence is there on the page alongside her puckish sense of humor and her evident goodness…What a gal.”--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)
Emma Brockes
The joy of the book is Dench herself, her mixture of down-to-earth and fabulously haughty.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
In this warmhearted memoir, actress Dench brings such a fresh and natural reaction as she describes her roles from Mother Courage to Cleopatra, Lady Bracknell and Sally Bowles that a sense of identification occurs; Dench shows the theatrical inside plumbing of the player and how personal insights, emotional backstories, and initial responses create the character. She believes she is blessed with her marriage to actor Michael Williams and a supportive and understanding family, sharing stories about them as well as about actors Sir John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Stephen Sondheim. Her tales of finding movie fame later in her career and her trips on the Oscar red carpet are heartfelt whether she's with Cate Blanchett or Vin Diesel. With candor and wit, Dench interweaves her stage presences with her love of playing pranks on fellow actors, on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and on Broadway. Considering the idea of retirement, she says, "you retire to do things that you really want to do. Well, I am doing things I want to do now." Photos. (Mar.)Library Journal
In her preface, celebrated stage and screen actress Dench declares that this book is not an autobiography, something she had neither the time nor the skill to write. Instead, it's meant as a companion to the biography and other works by John Miller (who gets an "as told to" credit here), with Dench's own reflections on her roles and her fellow actors. After quickly dispensing with her early years, Dench gets right down to her first role at the Old Vic—Ophelia, via unnerving on-again, off-again casting. Then she's on to the Royal Shakespeare Company, marriage to Michael Williams, experiences in film and television and on Broadway, receipt of an Oscar and an OBE, and more. It's all told in a dry, engaging voice, at once fierce and modest; Dench is forthright about her own slip-ups and the plays she loathes (including The Merchant of Venice). Clearly, Dench finds acting both all-absorbing and a real hoot; she and her colleagues cut up a lot. Young actors should attend to her comments on the value of theater training. VERDICT A delightful visit with a rare actress, definitely worth reading even for those acquainted with Miller's works.—Barbara Hoffert, Library JournalKirkus Reviews
Dench recalls her illustrious career in this rather flavorless memoir, tracking her storied performances in a staggering number of classical and contemporary stage works, TV series and films.
The author writes with a restraint that borders on the perverse, eschewing backstage gossip or personal introspection—or really much sentiment at all. She recounts a few mild pranks and standard actors' complaints about less-than-ideal performance conditions, but most of the narrative just tallies up professional accomplishments, charting Dench's relatively smooth ascension from respected repertory actress to Academy Award winner. With a few blandly complimentary phrases, she sums up co-stars such as Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, declining to discuss the differing processes of mounting films, TV series and stage shows, or her impressions of the differing performance cultures of Hollywood, Broadway and the English theater. Her English TV seriesAs Time Goes Byenjoys a devoted cult in the United States, but she has almost nothing to say about it beyond registering bemusement at the Internet-driven mania of its fan base. Dench was married to actor Michael Williams for nearly three decades and had a daughter with him, but he's a vague, reassuring presence in the narrative whose death from cancer receives a rather cursory treatment here. The author's English reserve is admirable, but the brisk manner in which she recounts the presumably central tragedy of her life points up the book's ultimately off-putting coolness and perfunctory approach to autobiography. It's more of a list than a story, and indeed the book's most impressive section is a simple listing of Dench's acting credits, limning a truly awesome body of work. Bits of her personality do peek through, chiefly a surprising tetchiness (she is not a great fan of journalists) that might have made the book more enjoyable if given free rein.
Great actress, mediocre memoir.