Private Faces and Public Places: The Autobiography

(Paperback)

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Description

Sian Phillips has a long and celebrated career on both stage and screen. For the first time, her two bestselling volumes of memoir Private Faces and Public Places will be available as a single volume with a brand new foreword by the author.

With wonderful stories and unflinching candour, Private Faces and Public Places covers her life from its beginnings in the remote Welsh countryside, where life hadn't changed for centuries, to finding herself at the epicentre of the acting world at its most glamorous alongside husband Peter O'Toole, whose career was about to take off with the spellbinding Lawrence of Arabia. Sian describes the mad and wonderfully impulsive times with O'Toole alongside the tempestuous, insecure, and often lonely periods in their marriage. Incredibly, it endures over 20 years.

When it ends, surprising even herself, she plunges straight into another marriage, with the much younger actor Robin Sachs. Emerging alone from her second marriage, triumphant and unrepentant, the story Sian tells ranks alongside the very best in show business.

Reviews

'Magnificent' * Sunday Times *
'A fascinating read, easily one of the best autobiographies of the year' -- Lynn Barber * Daily Telegraph *
'A stimulating work of art . . . a rare bird indeed among "showbiz" books' -- Hugh Massingberd * Daily Telegraph *
'A delightful memoir, written with great warmth and freshness' * Mail on Sunday *

Author Bio

Dame Sian Phillips was born in Glamorgan, Wales in 1933. Her long and illustrious acting career includes a starring turn as Livia in I, Claudius and Goodbye, Mr Chips, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. She continues to appear regularly on both stage and screen, most recently in Strike (BBC One). She was made a Dame in 2016.