Margaret Rutherford: A Blithe Spirit

Dawn Langley Simmons's biography of her adoptive mother, Dame Margaret Rutherford. One of this country's most famous and best loved actresses, remembered for such roles as "Madame Arcati" and "Miss Marple", this book opens the door to her private life; her marriage in her 50s to Stringer Davies; her many whims and fancies, and her plethora of comedy roles; but the book also tells of the dark side of Dame Margaret; her recurring melancholia and nervous collapses, and her terrible fear that she would go the way of her own parents whom she had hardly known - the mother who committed suicide, and the father, convicted of the murder of his own father, who spent his last years in an asylum for the criminally insane. Written by her adopted daughter, who - prior to her gender-realignment surgery - had been called Gordon, and brought up as a male child - this is a fascinating book about a fascinating character. All orders shipped protected in a box.