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Very Good in Very Good jacket. Book. 8vo-over 7¾-9¾" tall. Hardcover, in dust jacket. Sticker remnant to front endpaper. Otherwise clean, tight and unmarked. Very neat--a sound and handsome copy. Illustrated.
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Add this copy of Celia Johnson to cart. $156.75, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1991 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Celia Johnson, mostly recognised for the film "Brief Encounter", was an actress who began her acting career playing alongside the 'greats' - Gerald du Maurier, Marie Tempest, Nigel Playfair. Her acting life, however, was not of the first importance, especially after she married Peter Fleming (brother of Ian and well-known travel writer and columnist), and became the mother of a son and two daughters. She was one of those rare actresses who only took on work when it did not interfere too much with her home life. Her contempories, such as Ralph Richardson, Noel Coward, Peggy Ashcroft, Maggie Smith, all thought her one of the foremost thespians of her time. In the main, the important critics loved her, although most of the work she did was not in the classics but more drawing room dramas and comedies.
Written by her daughter, Kate Fleming, this book is mainly disappointing, too often relying on letters between Peter Fleming and his wife which did not always exclude trivia. What would be of interest to the reader is too often skipped over in merely a sentence, as when the subject lunched with the Queen Mother at the Royal Lodge (twice). The famous Ian Fleming's demise is treated with the same scant detail, not even putting down the reason for his early death, and then Peter dies, more information would have been obtained from a newspaper. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the author knew her mother would not have approved of this biography and a family loyalty prevailed throughout, which is a pity because Celia was an interesting woman who married into a larger-than-life family, and mixed with interesting people, and with the help of cooks, nannies, gardeners and home help managed to run the life of a sought-after actress with that of a wife and mother.
Dame Celia Johnson, as she became, died after collapsing at her beloved bridge table, having performed only the evening before in a successful run and still in command of her acting powers. In short, the perfect 'going'. But in spite of any flaws, the reader will possibly be glad to have this book in his/her library.