The Incomparable Rex: Rex Harrison: The Last of the High Comedians

Rex Harrison’s fifth – but not last – wife, Elizabeth said of him: ‘I was very fond of Rex before we were married, and even more fond of him after we were married – it was the bit in between that was so difficult.’

The Incomparable Rex is an affectionate and witty memoir of one of Britain’s great theatrical and cinematic talents, Rex Harrison. When he died in 1990, the English-speaking world lost one of its most eloquent and fastidious high comedians.

Patrick Garland worked with Harrison on the revival of My Fair Lady and came to know him well and – despite Rex’s reputation as something of an unholy terror – became extremely fond of him. Rex Harrison was famed for his urbane style, his mordant wit, his numerous wives and his truly appalling temper, quite apart from his legendary and much loved performance as Henry Higgins on both stage and screen.

The Incomparable Rex is a delightful and frequently laugh-out-loud blend of anecdote, pen-portraits and personal reminiscence which gives a vivid flavour of this complex man, and the pressures of working with him and a large cast, and of reviving a great musical on the American stage. This edition features a new introduction from actor and writer Simon Callow.

‘A scrupulously fair and most diverting memoir’ Daily Telegraph

Patrick Ewart Garland (1935-2013) was a British director, writer and actor. After studying at Oxford University, he founded the journal Poetry International with Ted Hughes, and acted in An Age of Kings, among other notable theatrical performances. Following a stint as producer and interview for the BBC, his highly successful career as a director in the theatre took off. He remains the only director to have ever had four plays running simultaneously in London's West End, as well as many triumphs in New York and elsewhere. He served twice as the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, from 1981-1985 and 1990-1994 respectively, where he directed twenty stage productions. His memoir of Rex Harrison, The Incomparable Rex, was based in part on the three and a half years they worked closely together on the revival of My Fair Lady in the early 1980s. Garland was married to the actress Alexandra Bastedo from 1980 until his death in 2013.