No comments about Lord Churchill's Coup: The Anglo-American Empire and the Glorious Revolution Reconsidered.

No comments about Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth.

No comments about Tales from the Milestone: My Life Before and During 1940-1945.

5 comments about Balancing Act: The Authorized Biography Of Angela Lansbury: The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury.

1. Hello Ms. Lansbury:
   
   I just wanted to tell you how much enjoyment your performances have given my wife and I, over the years. Oh, and your decision to move to Ireland after your house in Malibu burned down: Brilliant! I grew up in Santa Monica, where there was too much money and too many drugs... So many kids my age (I was born in 1954, and graduated from Santa Monica High in 1972) had their lives destroyed by drugs. Los Angeles and Hollywood are terrible places to raise kids! You are so very lucky, to have raised a beautiful son and daughter, and to have had a husband who loved you, for so many decades. I only hope that my wife and I can enjoy over 50 years of marriage, as you and your spouse successfully did! Best wishes to you and your family. [...]



2. If you are an Angela Lansbury fan like I am, you will love this book. It tells of her family, her marriage, children, her days at MGM, her talks and encounters with movie stars, her movie career, Murder She Wrote and after. It is a well-written book not trashy like the Kitty Kelly biographies or sugar coated. I enjoyed reading this book. A GREAT READ.



3. This authorized biography of Angela Lansbury is interesting and well-written...but she was a part of the project, had final say over what was and wasn't included, and left SO MUCH out! Her personal life is covered much better in the other two unauthorized biographies of Angela Lansbury. But what really floored me in this one was her descriptions of "fan psychology" and the way she talks about teenagers who looked up to the character she portrayed in shows like "Mame." She describes the kids' adulation of her in terms of being "a tragedy." While one fan clearly became out of control in terms of following her around and pestering her, the rest of us - legions of us - didn't. Hello! What's so tragic about children looking up to, and being inspired by, a responsible celebrity?



4. With angela Lansbury's cooperation, the author was able to construct the life of the star and her dreams without being intrusive into episodes of her life. He truly respected the subject and the star rewarded him with candor. it is too often that authors choose biographies to sensationalize a life. In this case, the author told it straight but with humanity and dignity and affection for a woman of icnredible talent and character.



5. This is one of the finest celebrity biographies that I have ever read. Actress Angela Lansbury is profiled with candor and wit in Martin Gottfried's "Balancing Act". Gottfried conducted countless interviews with the star herself of whom he says, "No biographical subject could have been more cooperative.", and many, many of those who knew her and worked with her. The book details her early life in London, her arrival in America during WWII, and her first film, at MGM, where they promptly decided to change her name to "Angela Marlow". The book writes with candor about her first failed marriage and her Hollywood years into the late forties, when she married Peter Shaw (and the marriage is still going strong). In the early fifties, she gave birth to her son Anthony and daughter Deidre Shaw, and in the late sixties, with her Hollywood career in a slump, she bounced back on Broadway in her Tony-Award winning title role in the musical "Mame". The book is at its most exciting when detailing her Broadway career, and not just with "Mame", but with her three other Tony-Award winning roles in "Dear World", "Gypsy", and "Sweeney Todd". And after Broadway, Lansbury conquered television with her ever-popular "Murder, She Wrote" series. Since then, Lansbury has enjoyed steady acting and puttering in her rose garden. Many humorous anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories told by Lansbury concern stars like Ingrid Bergman, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Bea Arthur among them. She is a rueful raconteur and thrilled with her extraordinary professional and personal life. With the color and gusto of "Balancing Act", Angela Lansbury is profiled up close and personal and, as always, absolutely great!

No comments about The Diaries of Beatrice Webb: Abridged Edition.

No comments about Bertie and Alix: Anatomy of a Royal Marriage (Shadows of the Crown Series).

No comments about Memoirs of Joseph Prost, C.Ss.R.: A Redemptorist Missionary in Ireland 1851-1854 (Irish Narrative Series).

No comments about Six Faces of Courage.

1 comments about Highland Warrior: Alasdair MacColla and the Civil Wars.

1. Stevenson looks at the history of the Gaelic fringe of Ireland and Scotland in the seventeenth century with a refreshingly unromantic eye. Gone are the quaint stories of Highland laddies, and villanous Cromwellians. Stevenson's "Highland Warrior" is thick with intrigue. Alasdair Mac Colla emerges from these pages looking super-human, but certainly not heroic in the conventional sense. However, in the fallen world of the seventeenth century, Mac Colla and his sidekick Manus Ruadh O'Cahan may be the closest one might ever get to heroic figures. They are, at least, extremely interesting individuals. This is a magnificent book, and it is a must read for any student of Irish or Scottish history.

No comments about Winston and Archie: The Letters of Winston Churchill and Archibald Sinclair.