Alec Guinness the Unknown

Alec Guinness the Unknown
Author: Garry O'Connor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2002
Genre: Actors
ISBN: 9780283073403

The definitive, highly revealing biography of a great actor whose career spanned the twentieth century. Alec Guinness appeared in 77 films and 55 plays, winning acclaim for commanding roles such as Professor Marcus in The Lady Killers, Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars and George Smiley in Smiley`s People. He was an astonishingly gifted actor who became a British institution, a familiar figure to many. And yet Alec Guinness was a many-layered, complex man who was careful throughout his life to show only a little of his real self, never too much. He died with a large part of the truth still hidden. Now, for the first time, Garry O`Connor is able to reveal the full story, including startling new information on Guinness`s childhood, his secret relationships and the fears that haunted him. Backed by impeccable research, including interviews with Guinness himself as well as those close to him, this riveting biography will at last fill in the gaps, adding a new depth to our understanding not just of Guinness`s life but of his remarkable acting ability. Garry O`Connor has directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, been a critic for The Times and written authoritative biographies of Paul Scofield, Peggy Ashcroft, Ralph Richardson and Sean O`Casey.

Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness
Author: Piers Paul Read
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2005-06-21
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0743244982

A portrait based on access to the late actor's personal writings offers insight into his experiences as a soldier in World War II, his stage and film achievements, and his fiercely private personal life.

Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness
Author: Garry O'Connor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2004
Genre: Actors
ISBN: 9780754095439

Alec Guinness appeared in seventy-seven films and fifty-five plays in an outstanding career that spanned the century. He won acclaim for stage, film and television performances, and yet he was a complex man who was careful throughout his life to show only a little of his real self. He died with a large part of the truth still hidden. Garry O'Connor here reveals the full story. The result is a multi-layered portrait of a man shaped by his illegitimacy and his strained relationship with his mother, seeking for certainties in his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Backed by impeccable research, including interviews with Guinness himself, this riveting biography will add a new depth to our understanding not just of Guinness's life but of his remarkable acting ability.

My Name Escapes Me

My Name Escapes Me
Author: Alec Guinness
Publisher: Penguin Mass Market
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780140277456

A marvelously entertaining diary from one of the most distinguished--and beloved--actors of stage and screen. Revealing the octogenarian spryness of a civilized mind and a beguiling mixture of the meditative and the hedonistic, My Name Escapes Me offers a glimpse of the private side of Guinness's often very public life.

Blessings in Disguise

Blessings in Disguise
Author: Alec Guinness
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1986
Genre: Actors
ISBN: 9781585790319

Alec Guinness shares his memoirs and describes the people who have shaped his life.

The Uncomfortable Dead

The Uncomfortable Dead
Author: Subcomandante Marcos
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2010-02-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1936070758

A stylized reissue of the acclaimed, surreal noir collaboration between Mexico’s greatest writer and its most courageous revolutionary. “Taibo’s expertise ensures a smart, funny book, and Marcos brings a wry sense of humor.” —Publishers Weekly In alternating chapters, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos and the consistently excellent Paco Ignacio Taibo II create an uproarious murder mystery with two intersecting storylines. The chapters written by the famously masked Marcos originate in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico. There, the fictional “Subcomandante Marcos” assigns Elias Contreras—an odd but charming mountain man—to travel to Mexico City in search of an elusive and hideous murderer named “Morales.” The second story line, penned by Taibo, stars his famous series detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne. Hector guzzles Coca-Cola and smokes cigarettes furiously amidst his philosophical and always charming approach to investigating crimes—in this case, the search for his own “Morales.” The two stories collide absurdly and dramatically in the urban sprawl of Mexico City. The ugly history of the city’s political violence rears its head, and both detectives find themselves in an unpredictable dance of death with forces at once criminal, historical, and political. Readers expecting political heavy-handedness will be disarmed by the humility and playful self-mocking that runs throughout the book.

Monsignor Quixote

Monsignor Quixote
Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2010-10-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1409021009

Driven away from his parish by a censorious bishop, Monsignor Quixote sets off across Spain accompanied by a deposed renegade mayor as his own Sancho Panza, and his noble steed Rocinante – a faithful but antiquated SEAT 600. Like Cervantes’s classic, this comic, picaresque fable offers enduring insights into our life and times.

A Most Wanted Man

A Most Wanted Man
Author: John le Carre
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2009-08-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416594892

A half-starved young Russian is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he?

A Murder of Quality

A Murder of Quality
Author: John le Carré
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2011-05-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0141967455

A murder mystery in the finest tradition of English detective novels, John le Carré's A Murder of Quality is an ingenious puzzle featuring his best-loved character George Smiley. Stella Rode has twice disturbed the ancient cloisters of Carne School: firstly by being the wrong sort, with her doilies and china ducks, and secondly by being murdered. George Smiley, who has his own connection with the school, is asked by an old Service friend to investigate. Smiley knows that Stella feared her husband would murder her, but as he probes further beneath Carne's respectable veneer, he uncovers far more than a simple crime of passion. In his second George Smiley novel, le Carré moves outside the world of espionage to reveal the secrets at the heart of another particularly English institution. The result is a pitch-perfect murder mystery, with Smiley as master detective. If you enjoyed A Murder of Quality, you might like le Carré's Call for the Dead, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty' Daily Telegraph