The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw by Sheila Hancock


The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw
Title : The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0747577099
ISBN-10 : 978-0747577096
Language : English
Format Type : The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw
Number of Pages : 320 pages
Publication : Bloomsbury Pub Ltd

When John Thaw, star of The Sweeney and Inspector Morse, died from cancer in 2002, a nation lost one of its finest actors and Sheila Hancock lost a beloved husband. In this unique double biography she chronicles their lives personal and professional, together and apart. John Thaw was born in Manchester, the son of a lorry driver. When he arrived at RADA on a scholarship he felt an outsider. In fact his timing was perfect: it was the sixties and television was beginning to make its mark. With his roles in Z Cars and The Sweeney, fame came quickly. But it was John's role as Morse that made him an icon. In 1974 he married Sheila Hancock, with whom he shared a working class background and a RADA education. Sheila was already the star of the TV series The Rag Trade and went on to become the first woman artistic director at the RSC. Theirs was a sometimes turbulent, always passionate relationship, and in this remarkable book Sheila describes their love weathering overwork and the pressures of celebrity, drink and cancer with honesty and piercing intelligence, and evokes two lives lived to the utmost.

The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw Reviews

  • Joanna Brown

    I really enjoyed the life stories of Sheila and John. I could hear them both speaking through the dialogue. The included poems and quotes from plays definitely added to the narrative. I found myself skimming the last 50 pages or so when Sheila researches

  • hews

    I thoroughly enjoyed the book and shed many tears at the poignancy of the battle with grief. Well done, Sheila x

  • prisrob

    Sheila Hancock was married to John Thaw for 28 years. They were wonderful, lovely, sad, dangerous, depressing and glorious years. She writes in two person of their life together and of their separate lives before they met. Their life together, says Sheila "weathered

  • Jennie

    Typical straight forward language, honest account of their life together, a thoroughly good book. Sheila Hancock at her best

  • You caught me procrastinating again

    I'm not one for autobiographies or biographies at all; I've only ever read two Michael J Fox's Lucky Man and now The Two Of Us. If I'm honest, I was half expecting not to finish The Two Of Us, half expecting the star of Inspector Morse and

  • ann crdr

    i promised myself when i got a kindle fire this would be the first book that i would download and i did and i was nt disapointed it is a great book a mixture of both their lifes of when they were growning up their familys the hardships they faced the heartaches.How John had

  • John Astley

    I thoroughly enjoyed the read and the background to both their lives and choices. Held my attention throughout. The background was different to the expected one.

  • PennyLane

    I liked the way Sheila Hancock interweaves her life story and professional progress with her meeting with John Thaw. It is not in chronological order as such, but far affecting. We get a sense of her and Thaw's early life and an insight into her relationship with the