Old Rage: 'One of our best-loved actor's powerful riposte to a world driving her mad’ - DAILY MAIL

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I enjoyed this, although I'm not a fan of celebrity autobiography, which is often very self indulgent. I really enjoyed Sheila Hancock’s latest book - this lady us such an inspiration for me, I recently saw her talk as part of Falmouth’s book festival with a friend. In the book, her view of the world is refreshing, not dead certain but tempered with the confounding burden of experience. An excellent book which is good therapy if you need a good rant along with some interesting stories and anecdotes about her past and present. She is kind and doesn’t have a bad word when speaking of people she knows and has met over the years.

Have to say I skipped through some of her real rants but being an avid reader, I have never given up on a book in my 73 years. It’s 20 years now since Hancock’s second husband, John Thaw, died of oesophageal cancer – the same disease that took her first, the actor Alec Ross, 31 years earlier – and I wonder if the isolation born of Covid-19 painfully reinforced the state of widowhood. Old Rage by Sheila Hancock is a funny, poignant and feisty memoir of the actress, who is now approaching her nineties.

It all kicks off with an insight into her recent film “Edie”, where an old lady, her husband having passed away recently, decided to go and climb Suilven. Hancock discovers many reasons for joy and optimism - and you're quite likely to find yourself nodding in agreement with her.

The building of many new houses threatens the tranquility of her beloved French house, then Britain votes to leave the common market, the horror of the Grenfell disaster and what it reveals about English politicians, and then isolation in her home during the Covid pandemic, devastating for someone who loves to connect with people.Old Rage” is in no way a metaphorical title: this is a brutally honest and fiercely funny book by a lady who has pretty much seen it all, and may yet have some life left in her. Having lived through bereavement and been born and remembers the Second World War, she now finds herself lonely at times and her body is finally not doing that well now.

So why, at 89, having sailed past supposedly disturbing milestones – 50, 70 even 80 – without a qualm, did she suddenly feel so furious? Biography: Sheila Hancock, one of Britain's most highly regarded and popular actors, received a Damehood for services to drama and charity in 2021. In 2019 she was starring with James Nesbitt in Tim Firth’s musical comedy This Is My Family in Chichester when she fell in the bathroom of her digs, and had to have 10 stitches in her head.Sheila Hancock shares her story and unflinchingly examines her life and all that comes with it, flaws, mistakes and all. Sheila has also been made a dame (a proper one), an accolade she took in her stride while reflecting on the type of society that created such things, which leads me to mention that her political views are expanded upon here. Whilst I’m sure she’s a very nice lady to be commended for her many and varied accomplishments including mountain climbing aged 83, raising 3 daughters whilst maintaining a career and a marriage to an alcoholic but the incessant opinionated ranting and disparaging remarks about public figures she doesn’t approve of or like is tiresome.

There are references to the aches and pains of aging, falls and other illnesses, but above all this is the journal of a woman fiercely engaged with life.As a Quaker one might expect a less judgmental and more forgiving soul than Shelia Hancock portrays herself to be. I bought this as I have enjoyed Sheila Hancock's other books and the premise of this appealed to me. Today is particularly piercing on this score, the death of Denis Waterman, Thaw’s co-star in The Sweeney, having just been announced.