- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Oberon Books Ltd; First Edition edition (11 Oct 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1840024577
- ISBN-13: 978-1840024579
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.7 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 463,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Richard E Grant
A Supa-candid-gossip-tastic-expo-valid-dose-worth of Dirk,Sophia,Bette and Rudy in the sixties. Grab and gobble it.
Roger Lewis in the Sunday Express
Close Up,with its eye for human oddity,is the wittiest and best-written showbusiness autobiography I have ever read.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From poverty in Glasgow to paradise in Tuscany - John Fraser vividly describes over seventy years of his eventful life.
There are evocative, sometimes jabbing, memories of childhood - a sweet mother, alcoholic father prone to epileptic fits. They died at forty eight within six weeks of the other. Indefatigable Aunt Gatty, profoundly deaf and full of worldly wisdom, forever treadled at the sewing machine to raise money for the family and to pay for John's education - the essential stepping stone for all that followed.
Anecdotes abound of the exhilarating years of screen and stage fame, the many stars encountered (quite a few on self-destruct). Included are Hedy Lamarr (seriously egotistical and disturbed), Bette Davis ("a swaying hooded cobra", responsible for the book's funniest chapter), Rudolf Nureyev (a passionate lover, but a bit of a scruff).
John Fraser writes frankly of his sexuality, the relief when a 1967 change in the law meant no more fear of blackmail and prosecution. He admires those who came out into the open and regrets Dirk Bogarde's life was a lie to its very end. (An extraordinary revelation tells what Bogarde kept in the loft to fulfil his fantasies.)
Realizing he would never be one of the "acting greats", Fraser changed course. As "a travelling vagabond", part of a tiny group, he for sixteen years performed extracts from Shakespeare in over sixty countries - the reactions enthusiastic. Cue for tales of soldier ants on the rampage in Nigeria, disturbing scenes in Baghdad's Golden Mosque, an excruciating evening in the company of geishas with acne and dandruff. Especially involving is his account of Sicilian builder Calogero and black prostitute Kofo - she for so long at the mercy of unscrupulous sex traders. Their eventual wedding provides one of the book's many highlights.
Witty, self-mocking, perceptive, at times barbed - this, throughout, is an entertaining read. Despite all the colourful people and exotic places, the image that most lingers is of Aunt Gatty at her sewing machine. Movingly John Fraser is ever mindful of his debt....
Much food for thought. Recommended.
There are evocative, sometimes jabbing, memories of childhood - a sweet mother, alcoholic father prone to epileptic fits. They died at forty eight within six weeks of the other. Indefatigable Aunt Gatty, profoundly deaf and full of worldly wisdom, forever treadled at the sewing machine to raise money for the family and to pay for John's education - the essential stepping stone for all that followed.
Anecdotes abound of the exhilarating years of screen and stage fame, the many stars encountered (quite a few on self-destruct). Included are Hedy Lamarr (seriously egotistical and disturbed), Bette Davis ("a swaying hooded cobra", responsible for the book's funniest chapter), Rudolf Nureyev (a passionate lover, but a bit of a scruff).
John Fraser writes frankly of his sexuality, the relief when a 1967 change in the law meant no more fear of blackmail and prosecution. He admires those who came out into the open and regrets Dirk Bogarde's life was a lie to its very end. (An extraordinary revelation tells what Bogarde kept in the loft to fulfil his fantasies.)
Realizing he would never be one of the "acting greats", Fraser changed course. As "a travelling vagabond", part of a tiny group, he for sixteen years performed extracts from Shakespeare in over sixty countries - the reactions enthusiastic. Cue for tales of soldier ants on the rampage in Nigeria, disturbing scenes in Baghdad's Golden Mosque, an excruciating evening in the company of geishas with acne and dandruff. Especially involving is his account of Sicilian builder Calogero and black prostitute Kofo - she for so long at the mercy of unscrupulous sex traders. Their eventual wedding provides one of the book's many highlights.
Witty, self-mocking, perceptive, at times barbed - this, throughout, is an entertaining read. Despite all the colourful people and exotic places, the image that most lingers is of Aunt Gatty at her sewing machine. Movingly John Fraser is ever mindful of his debt....
Much food for thought. Recommended.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent autobiography of a film actor that many will know his face but maybe not his name. Its a great insight into an actors life and career. It tells of the struggles of the fame game and tranissiion from stage to films. An excellent account and read of which I became thoroughly engrossed.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Excellent book, well written by a warm, witty and extremely likeable author. I could not put it down, it was brilliant!!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Should have been 100% entertaining.
A number of things concerned me about what should have been a completely enjoyable gossipy and informing read. Read more
Published 24 months ago by In Glorious Black And White
A great read but.....
The first three quarters of this autobiography with its marvellous and funny descriptions of the actor's childhood and his early career on stage and in film make for highly... Read more
Published on 11 April 2010 by Mr. Adrian J. Gardner
"Bette Who?"!
I knew the face and some of the films, though not the name. This is the story of one of the most consistently cast British actors of the 1945-1990 (or so) era. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2009 by Ian Millard
"If you don't get whit you, want want whit ye get !"
He was amazingly handsome and played the upright British hero role. He reveals that he was homosexual in a time when it was a crime to be so. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2008 by Peter Wade
British screen star of the 50s and 60s
Anyone interested in British films in the 1950s and 60s will relish this illuminating and witty book. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2007 by Dame Celia
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