Alec Guinness The Authorised Biography [Paperback]

After his death in August 2000, his widow Merula asked the author Piers Paul Read, who had been a friend of her husband, to write his biography. Given full co-operation by the Guinness family and free access to Sir Alec's papers, including his private and unpublished diaries, Read has produced the definitive portrait: a highly entertaining and penetrating account of an intriguing and complex man.Frank McLynn,Independent on Sunday'sBooks of the Year It may sound hyperbolic to suggest that a mere showbiz biography could be a deeply intelligent, acute piece of work, full of humanity and compassion...but that is what Piers Paul Read achieves in his magnificentAlec Guinness.Keith Baxter,SpectatorA splendid biography...Read gives us an astonishingly moving portrait of a very complex man, his loving marriage, and his quest for spiritual solace. It is a warts-and-all portrait but Read effortlessly invokes compassion for his subject...engrossing.Patrick Garland,The OldiePiers Paul Read's perceptive study about this much admired and most complicated of actors falls into that rare category of exceptional theatre biographies.