... VOICE OF SUCCESS Martin Jarvis has come a long way since he first became interested in the theatre at the Whitgift School, Croydon, though he was so tongue-tied in those days that in his first role absolutely nothing came out when he opened his mouth. Today he is one of the few actors who makes a large part of his living through his voice, main ly as a reader of books on tape. In Acting ...

... a faithful amanuensis of Stravinsky is famous, Craft is revealed here is this collection of 49 essays as a judicious and sensitive observer of all the arts. Mostly gathered frm the pages of the anglophile New York Review of Books, most of these pieces are reviews of specific publications and perform ances. They are divided into five sections art, ballet, music, literature, film -and the ...

... UNEASY FAME Were it not for the success of One Foot in the Grave, it is doubtful whether anybody would have thought it worthwhile to write a biography of Richard Wilson. It is almost certain that the subject would be the first to disagree even now that he is famous, for he is an intensely private and self-contained man. Those of us who have been around the theatre for a few years were aware ...

... DARKER SIDE Those of us who remember Jeremy Brett at the beginning of his career in the fifties must have regarded him as the embodiment of privilege going hand in hand with talent. An old Etonian, with striking good looks and an attractive young wife in Anna Massey herself from a leading theatrical family, he seemed to have everything going for him. Parts fell fairly easily into his lap ...

... RICH PICKINGS At nearly 700 pages, Julie Kavanagh's life of Frederick Ashton, Secret Muses (Faber and Faber, £25), is not a book for picking up lightly. Its length is accounted for by the fact that it is really two books in one, a biography of Ashton, an an examination of his work. I am not sure whether this co-existence works, even though both are intertwined to a high degree. What we non ...

... GREAT TEAM On the surface, Thelma Ruby and Peter Frye might have appeared an ill-assorted pair, bound together by the fact that they were both Jewish and worked in the theatre. Isn't that enough, one might say. But they were different kinds of Jews and contrasting types of actor. She came from Leeds, was very Anglicised, had a fairly orthodox religious upbringing and was bom into a ...

... HIDDEN TALENTS I worked in the same offices as Patrick Campbell for several years without actually getting to know him very well, the reasons for which are explained in his entertaining autobiography I'll Try Anything Once (New Millennium, 202 Kennincton Road. London SE11 4LD, £9.99). Though Patrick and I both worked for The Stage, there was an extraordinary closed-door policy between our ...

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... A chance to chart the nice side of the loon Compiled By Peter Hepple Michael Palin, many of us have fett, has always seemed the nicest and most level-headed member of the Monty Python team, an impression strongly confirmed by Jonathan Margolis' biography Michael Palin (Orion Media. £17.99, hbk). Perhaps what most of us like about Palin is his unpretentious- ness and the fact that his feet ...

... Potter the day away with a weighty read COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE Never before, in my experience, have so many showbusiness and theatre biographies, some of them auto, been published as during this autumn. One or two of them, it must be said, are of people whose careers have scarcely reached the ten-year mark--a biography in progress, one might say proving, if nothing else, that publishers ...

... A lady with star spirit BIOGRAPHY Chili Bouchier always wanted to be a film star. And for a while in the twenties, it looked as though she would be. The fact that she never quite attained the starriest heights makes her book Shooting Star (Book-in Hand Ltd, 20 Shepherds Hill, London N6 5AH, £14.99) more interesting, to my mind, than if she had, despite some very sloppy proof reading. Bom ...

... A fool--but full of Wisdom Peter Hepple puts his feet up and enjoys some recent literature which has appeared on the bookshelves The most astonishing thing about Norman Wisdom is that at the age of 82 he is still working. His book, 'Cos I'm a Fool (Breedon Books, Breedon House, 44 Friar Gate, Derby DE1 1DA, £15.99), written in collaboration with Stage contributor Bernard Bale, gives many ...