opposite direction. Atkins is
a brilliant storyteller who
conjures up a lost world.Women vs Hollywood The
Fall and Rise of Women in Film
by Helen O’Hara
Robinson £18.99From the earliest days of
movies, when women were
regarded as morally superior,to the factory days of the
studio system, when every
aspect of their lives was
controlled and manipulated
(with abortions provided)
by the men in charge, to
today’s battles for equal pay
and better representation,
Empire writer O’Hara
provides a lively corrective
history from a woman’s point
of view.Windswept and Interesting
My Autobiography
by Billy Connolly
Two Roads £25The free-form style of this
autobiography owes
something to the fact that
Connolly, now in the grip of
Parkinson’s disease, dictated
his memoir and others
organised them. But the
advantage is that they sound
as if he is talking to you,
narrating his life, from abused
child to adored comedian,
with digressions on every
passing subject from farts to
political incorrectness.Swan Dive The Making of
a Rogue Ballerina
by Georgina Pazcoguin
Picador £18.99Fat-shaming, liposuction,
violent outbursts and racism
were as much a part of
Pazcoguin’s life at New York
City Ballet as her own drive
and passion for ballet, which
helped her to become NYCB’s
first Asian-American female
soloist. Her resilience is
written on every page, often
in capitals, with wit and rage
displayed in equal measure. cBackstage barbs
From Michaela
Coel to Brian Cox,
the stars don’t
hold back in
Sarah Crompton’s
showbiz picks
STAGE & SCREEN
Misfits A Personal Manifesto
by Michaela Coel
Ebury £9.99A stocking filler with the
power of a hand grenade, this
is — bar a short introductionand conclusion — a reprint of
Coel’s 2018 James MacTaggart
lecture at the Edinburgh
Television Festival in which
she told the story of her
life and challenged the
entertainment industry to
get better at welcoming
“misfits” like her. “There
are as many perspectives
as there are people” is her
inspiring mantra.The Twelve Lives of
Alfred Hitchcock
by Edward White
Norton £22.99White doesn’t add anything
new to the extensive range
of Hitchcock studies, but
he does offer a masterly
summing up of the queasy
contradictions of his life and
the discomfiting genius of
his film-making, with
chapters devoted to subjects
such as The Womanizer,
The Voyeur and The Fat Man.
The extensive quoted sources
and the elegance of the
writing make it a pleasure
to read.Maybe I Don’t Belong Here
A Memoir of Race, Identity,
Breakdown and Recovery
by David Harewood
Bluebird £20This description of the
psychosis that led to
Harewood — fresh out of
drama school — being
sectioned in the locked ward
of a psychiatric institution
(where he’s described in
the records as “large Black
man”) is shocking. Even more
so is his analysis of the racism
he encountered that led to
his unravelling. The
Homeland star’s brutal
honesty is startling and
thought-provoking.Will She Do? Act One of a Life
on Stage by Eileen Atkins
Virago £18.99Starting out as dancing Baby
Eileen on the club circuit, by
the close of this memoir
Atkins has found fame as an
actress. En route she loses
a job to Glenda Jackson
because she is slower taking
off her clothes, and gets lifts
home with Laurence Olivier
even though she lives in theBOOKS OF THE YEAR
Truth will out Michaela Coel
writes her manifestoPutting the
Rabbit in
the Hat
by Brian Cox
Quercus
£20Even in a year of revealing
memoirs, most people
self-censor. Not Cox. Not
about his famous co-stars
— Johnny Depp “so
overrated”, Ed Norton “a bit
of a pain in the arse” — or
about himself: “I’ve been
a fairly crappy father.” It’s
a book full of wonderful
stories and huge insight into
the whole business of acting
and the workings of the
human soul, ranging from
his impoverished childhood,
to stage and film success, to
his triumph as Logan Roy in
Succession. With as many
flavours as a fine glass of
malt and absolute heaven.OUR BOOK OF
THE YEAR
ALAMY40 28 November 2021