Will she do? : act one of a life on stage /

Includes index.

The story of a girl from a council estate in Tottenham, born in 1934 to an electric-meter reader and a seamstress, who was determined to be an actress. Candid and witty, this memoir takes her from her awkward performances in working-men's clubs at six years of age as dancing 'Baby Eileen', through the war years in London, to her breakthrough at thirty-two on Broadway with The Killing of Sister George, for which she received the first of five Tony Award nominations. She co-created 'Upstairs, Downstairs' and wrote the screenplay for 'Mrs Dalloway' (for which she won an Evening Standard Award). Characterised by an eye for the absurd, a terrific knack for storytelling and an insistence on honesty, 'Will She Do?' is a raconteur's tale about family, about class, about youthful ambition and big dreams and what really goes on behind the scenes.