Judi Dench: And Furthermore

Judi Dench is quite clear about it: And Furthermore is not an autobiography. She sees it as a follow-up to the 1998 biography written by John Miller, Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice, which I have not yet read and am looking forward to reading soon, as it was one of my Christmas prezzies.

Indeed, it has very little of the interiority one expects from an autobiography. Dench is a notoriously private person, and so this is a book that deals largely with anecdotes and commentaries on her professional life, charming and intriguing stories about working with this actor and that director, on this play and that film. She pegs the events of her career onto a skeleton of life events that are barely mentioned - her entire courtship with Michael Williams is covered in a few sentences, for example.
Nor does she talk much about her process as an actor, something that I regret.

But as what it is, it is charming, delightful, and for someone who has followed her work, it's great fun to hear her (for this book is written in the style of a storyteller's reminiscences) share these tales about her life in theatre and film.