This Much is True

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What to expect

From Blackadder to Call the Midwife, from the Cadbury's Caramel Rabbit to Harry Potter, Miriam Margolyes is the outspoken great aunt (after two sherries) we all wish we had -- this is (at last) her extraordinary life story and it's well worth the wait.

'There is no one on earth quite so wonderful' STEPHEN FRY

Award-winning actor, creator of a myriad of memorable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, Miriam Margolyes is a national treasure.

Now, at last, at the age of 80, she has finally decided to tell her extraordinary life story. And it's far richer and stranger than any part she's played.

Find out how being conceived in an air-raid gave her curly hair; what pranks led to her being known as the naughtiest girl Oxford High School ever had; how she ended up posing nude for Augustus John aged 17, being sent to Coventry by Monty Python and the Goodies and swearing on University Challenge (she was the first woman to say F*** on TV). This book is packed with unforgettable stories from why Bob Monkhouse was the best (male) kiss she's ever had to being told off by the Queen. With a cast list stretching from Scorsese to Streisand, Leonardo di Caprio to Isaiah Berlin, This Much is True is as warm and honest, as full of life and surprises, as she is.

(P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critics Review

  • Gleefully outspoken and bursting with hilarious anecdotes, gloriously larger than life . . . I pity every person that is not me right now, drinking in the glory of Margolyes at 80

    Observer
  • Startling, thrillingly outspoken, provocative, potty-mouthed and exhilarating . . . THIS MUCH IS TRUE is never boring. Her personality is so likeable she can only leave you wanting more

    Daily Telegraph
  • Reads like the Wife of Bath’s memoirs

    Simon Callow
  • Wickedly honest . . . When I was reading this book on a train, a stranger asked if I was OK because I was crying with laughter

    Guardian
  • An irreverent, straight-talking, riotous romp through an extraordinary life

    Sunday Post
  • If there is a silver lining to last year’s lockdown, it’s the fact that Miriam Margolyes finally had time to write her life story . . . invigoratingly outspoken . . . gloriously shocking . . . and captures her force-of-nature personality. Buckle up, you’re in for a wild ride

    Daily Mirror

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