Actress Maggie Smith seems to be at the height of her power, enjoying worldwide acclaim and success for her roles in the Harry Potter and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films, as well as the TV series Downton Abbey. In Maggie Smith: A Biography, Michael Coveney, one of Britain's most respected theater critics, presents the storied influences of Dame Maggie's life and the six decades of her public presence and global reach on stage and screen.
Coveney explores Smith's exceptional talent by first examining her "spartan, though... not deprived, childhood." Because she was "not particularly welcomed" by her two elder brothers, Smith, in her loneliness, developed a voracious reading habit and a sharp instinct for privacy, and cultivated her tart spirit and independence. When her father, a medical lab technician, relocated the family to Oxford during World War II, Maggie became friends with the daughter of novelist Graham Greene, took piano and ballet lessons, and attended one of the best schools in Britain, Oxford High School. An acting teacher who harbored reservations about Maggie's acting ability fueled the teenager's drive for the stage. Maggie set off for the Oxford Playhouse School, forcing her parents grudgingly to reconcile themselves to their daughter's ambition.
Coveney spends the bulk of the biography chronicling, in great depth, Smith's acting roles, her analytical approach to craft and the often nomadic existence required by her transatlantic career. From her early days as a West End revue player, Smith was cast at the age of 21 in her first Broadway show, New Faces 1956, for her comic personality, "the essence that was to make her a star," and her career took off. Coveney relates intimate details about Smith's astounding performing range, from Shakespeare to Noël Coward, Edward Albee to Neil Simon--and Julian Fellows. There are a host of insider quotes and anecdotes involving actors such as Judi Dench, Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Derek Jacobi, Michael Caine and Vanessa Redgrave. Directors, classmates, family and friends share their insights, as well. Along the way, Coveney touches upon Smith's great loves, marriages and children. Smith's trademark self-preserving wit--along with her class and energy--enliven the narrative throughout.
Though the actress granted Coveney permission to write this biography, he asserts that Maggie Smith, even to those who know her well, is an enigma, and he accentuates Smith's difficulties in trying to balance her "private life with the public demands of her talent... career always came first." Therefore, it is fitting that this thorough and well-researched biography is anchored on on Dame Maggie's exemplary body of work and the demanding drive of her dedication and genius, all of which have earned her critical acclaim and lasting appeal. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines
Shelf Talker: Dame Maggie Smith, a very private person who has lived an extraordinary theatrical life on stage and screen, authorized this thoroughly researched biography.