By Jack Rosenthal - An Autobiography

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A brilliant, touching and funny autobiography

I have always enjoyed Jack Rosenthal's TV plays - The Evacuees, The Knowledge, P'Tang Yang Kipperbang, Eskimo Day and the original London's Burning among others. This autobiography is written in his natural medium as a screenplay - a prospect I found rather off-putting, but I gave it a go anyway. I needn't have worried. By the end of the first page I was hooked and reading it with ease and enjoyment. The screenplay format conjures up wonderful images and scenes and Rosenthal's use of dialogue is just brilliant - insightful, moving and often hilarious.

The book covers his life from 1930s Manchester until the turn of the millennium, with a postscript (beautifully, wittily and movingly written) from his wife Maureen Lipman. The whole thing is wonderful and I found that I was always very keen to get back and read some more and was often kept awake too late because I was reluctant to stop reading. There are plenty of anecdotes about the famous, great insight into the workings of showbusiness, and a warm depiction of family life, all told with wit, insight and self-deprecating humour by an obviously lovely man. It's a joy - and several cuts above the average showbiz autobiography.

If you have any interest in Jack Rosenthal, TV and film in the last 50 years or just in a really fine and funny book about family life and life in general, I recommend this very warmly indeed.