Maggie Smith: A Biography

Michael Coveney

St. Martin's Publishing Group, Mar 14, 2017 - Biography & Autobiography - 368 pages

This perfect gift book for fans of Downton Abbey will take them behind the scenes of the Grand Dame who brings the Dowager Countess to life.

No one does glamour, severity, girlish charm or tight-lipped witticism better than Dame Maggie Smith. Michael Coveney's biography shines a light on the life and career of a truly remarkable performer, one whose stage and screen career spans six decades.

From her days as a West End star of comedy and revue, Dame Maggie's path would cross with those of the greatest actors, playwrights and directors of the era. Whether stealing scenes from Richard Burton, answering back to Laurence Olivier, or playing opposite Judi Dench in Breath of Life, her career can be seen as a 'Who's Who' of British theatre. Her film and television career has been just as starry. From the title character in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the meddling chaperone in A Room With a View to the Harry Potter films in which she played Minerva McGonagall (as she put it 'Miss Jean Brodie in a wizard's hat') and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films in which she played the wise Muriel Donnelly, Smith has thrilled, engaged and made audiences laugh. As Violet Crawley, the formidable Dowager Countess of Downton Abbey she conquered millions more. Paradoxically she remains an enigmatic figure, rarely appearing in public.

Michael Coveney's absorbing biography, written with the actress's blessing and drawing on personal archives, as well as interviews with immediate family and close friends, is a portrait of one of the greatest actors of our time.

Contents

• In the Company of a Secret Star: 1
• The Flight from Ilford: 14
• Schooling in Oxford Accents: 21
• Margaret aged three: 24
• Clown of Town and Gown: 32
• New Revue and Old Vic: 45
• West End Calling Screen Testing: 60
• Surprises with Olivier at the National: 75
• Romance with the New Lunts: 88
• The Prime of Miss Maggie Smith: 101
• Prickly Pain in Private Lives: 116
• With her mother and brothers at Sandringham 1938: 128
• Canada Home and Dry: 134
• Salvation in Stratford Stoppard and Virginia Woolf: 150
• Best of British Pork and Palin: 173
• Millamant Poliakoff and Poppy Cocteau: 189
• A Toast to the Bard with Levin and Lettice: 202
• Alone without God: 211
• Tales of Ageing Innocence and Experience: 224
• Secrets and Lies in Yorkshire and Italy: 239
• TV Specials for the Lady from Dubuque: 261
• Harry Potter and Downton Abbey: 281
• Late Flowering of Marigolds around the Van: 302
• Acknowledgements: 331
• Tigbourne Court: 348

About the author

Michael Coveney was born on July 24, 1948 in England. He was educated at St. Ignatius College, Stanford Hill and Worcester College, Oxford. After graduation, he worked as a script reader for the Royal Court Theatre and from 1972 he contributed theatre reviews to the Financial Times. He was deputy editor (1973 - 75) and editor (1975-78) of Plays and Players magazine[1] and theatre critic and deputy arts editor of the Financial Times throughout the 1980s. He was theatre critic for The Observer from 1990 until he joined the Daily Mail in 1997, following the death of Jack Tinker. He remained at the Daily Mail until 2004. He is Chief Critic of the leading theatre website WhatsOnStage.com. He is the author of The Citz, a history of the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre 1990 and Maggie Smith: A Bright Particular Star, 1993. He has also published a biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and a revised edition of his biography of Maggie Smith will be published in 2015.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Maggie Smith: A Biography
• Author: Michael Coveney
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2017
• ISBN: 1250117186, 9781250117182
• Length: 368 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General; Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts; Biography & Autobiography / Women; Performing Arts / Television / History & Criticism; Performing Arts / Theater / History & Criticism