The enthralling, honest, often funny memoirs, of the north country girl who came to London acted at the Royal Court Theatre and married England’s greatest actor, Laurence Olivier.
Here Joan Plowright reveals herself as a natural raconteur: her memoirs are a delight. Joan Plowright tells her enthralling, honest, often funny memoirs. A north country girl whose father was a local newspaper editor, her mother a leading amateur actress. She came to London, acted at the Royal Court Theatre – then in its prime – and married England’s greatest actor, Laurence Olivier.
Joan Plowright was already a rising star when she met Olivier, then married to Vivien Leigh, who thanks to Gone with the Wind, was one of the country’s best-known actresses. She recalls what began as an illicit romance by drawing on the love letters they wrote to each other.
Here for the first time Joan Plowright talks intimately about life with Olivier – not always easy as she is the first to admit. Their marriage produced three children and a theatrical partnership that helped launch what became the National Theatre. The story of the ups and down of the National’s early years has never been told so franky before. With a host of good stories of a life devoted to acting, of fellow actors and directors from Orson Welles to David Niven, Maggie Smith to Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave to Kenneth Tynan, she also recalls a career that has continued to flourish in the year since Olivier’s death.
In And That’s Not All Joan Plowright reveals herself as a natural raconteur: her memoirs are a delight.
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