I’ve just finished reading Judi Dench’s new memoir (NOT an autobiography) which was my only impulse purchase, along with one other book, as part of my tax refund money.

Some reviewers on Amazon complain that the book is a laundry list and does not drop any information about Dench’s personal life. However, she explicitly states in the preface to the book how that is not her point. Instead, she clearly lays the intention to re-visit her career in a roughly chronological manner, occasionally stepping aside for family anecdotes and recollections.

I found the volume to be charmingly evocative throughout her stories. More importantly to me, it exuded the natural richness and clarity of the British Theatre that I so greatly miss from my times in London. Over there, of course, theatre is a way of life: not highbrow, at least decently funded, and popping up in places all over the United Kingdom. It’s ingrained, and Judi Dench knows she is near the top of the crown.