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List Price: $18.60 | | Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Salesrank: 575976
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| Our Price: $10.79 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
Whether it is her sunny temperament, her gift of laughter, her wide-ranging abilities, or all three, Judi Dench is without doubt a star. Shortlisted for a 1998 Oscar for her performance as Queen Victoria in MRS BROWN, she then won one for her role as Queen Elizabeth in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. Judi Dench is widely loved, and not only among the theatrical profession. Her long-running appearance opposite Geoffrey Palmer in the TV situation comedy AS TIME GOES BY has run to four series and gained her a TV TIMES readers' award as 'the actress we most wish see more often on television'. She juggles the National Theatre (a sell-out season in Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and David Hare's AMY'S VIEW) with TV and films (she is now established as 'M' in the latest James Bond series). Since the paperback edition was published, John Miller has written a new chapter, bringing what is fast becoming a classic biography completely up-to-date.
Judi Dench: With a Crack in Her Voice Reviews:
Saint Judi - as Seen by Her Friend 
2009-01-12 - Parts of this book are very interesting and supremely funny. This is not a biography (or, at least, not a good one), however, and to call it that is an error. John Miller is Dame Judi Dench's friend, and has clearly written this book with an eye to her approval and favor. Because of this leash on his research, the book is not anything approaching even-handed. The first half is a laundry-list of her early stage roles, and the second is a series of anecdotes regarding a lady I began to refer to as Saint Jude. If Miller is to be believed, she has never set a foot wrong, never been less than generous and perfect, and everyone in the world loves her. Come now. I adore Judi Dench, but there are no perfect people in the world, and that's just a fact.
Even the pranks that Judi pulls onstage, which when read one after the other after the other, take on the sheen of the childish, are mentioned as adorable things that that scamp Judi loves to do to keep her actor friends happy. Backstage tantrums, which are alluded to, only occur because she's so darned concerned about "getting it right," not because she's a human, and therefore inherently imperfect, human being, who sometimes loses her cool.
In addition to the above, this is an incredibly slow read. John Miller is not a particularly compelling writer, and there are times when it takes 30 minutes just to travel 15 pages in her life, because the prose is so stilted and dull.
Judi Dench is the greatest living British actress. There is no disputing that. She is someone with a fantastic sense of humor; someone I'd love to know. She is also human, and I would have preferred to read a biography that explores her less-stellar moments in a more objective way. Judi Dench: With a Crack in Her Voice is not that biography.
Interesting insight into this Dame's career 
2007-01-05 - I read a review that had said this book doesn't go very far into Dame Judi Dench's private life, but rather sticks with her professional career, and this is very true. The book highlights Judi Dench's career from the very beginning by focusing on all that she has accomplished professionly. The book isn't totally void of private tidbits about Judi Dench, few have been generously exposed and are pleasant to read. My favorite parts of the book are told about how Judi Dench loves to play funny tricks on her costars, she will go far for a laugh. I have seen quite alot of her work and it is really neat to read about the behind the scenes antics and dramas that went on. Overall, great read and very enjoyable for anyone who is a Judi Dench fan, you will learn alot from reading this book.
Interesting if one dimensional.
2006-08-01 - This is a gently and beautifully written book and embues a real sense of how the great Lady has developed her craft and how it has developed her as a person. I found it particulary interesting in terms of Dame Judi's early life as she and I hail from the same city (York) and her Father was my Grandmother's family Doctor.
What you get from this book is really what moulded Judi as an actor, by and large it steers away from her personal life and personal expose. I for one am glad of this as too often the style of the modern biographer is to seek out skeletons lerking in cupboards first and foremost, however tenious the evidence.
This is more of a celebratory style of the working aspect of Judi's life, how it developed and what traits lie at her core, what it is that makes her one, if not "the" finest living British actress.
It is a compliment of a book and collaborative overhaul of her career form it's inception. It manages not to be sychophantic and feels, moreover like a gentle but very interesting conversation with Judi. It delicate style almost certainly reflects Judi's personality to some degree, a private and retiring woman not given to self inflation nor aduration. It's a hark back to respectful style of biography and chronicals a remarkable career superbly. A very different genre of modern biography and worth it for this reason but moreover for it's outstanding and wonderful subject.
Look into the life of a true actor 
2001-11-13 - I'm an immense Judi Dench fan and waited for the publication of this paperback version of her biography. I wasn't disappointed. The author gives a complete picture of 'the Dame's' professional life--from her first stage parts up until her more widely known successes in the last couple of years.
Reading the book made me want to know this smart, funny woman who has now added 'M' (Bond movies) to her coverage of classical stage roles, television pieces and other movie parts. I came away with a somewhat better understanding of the enormous talent it must take to get to the heart of various characters. And, I greatly enjoyed the descriptions of the practical jokes JD loves to organize. I loved the 'corpsing' (the Brits use the term to describe actors 'cracking each other up').
Great reading for a 'Dame Judi' fan, or any fan of good acting, with an 'inside' view of the process.
Dame Judi Dench
2001-04-03 - This biography is a rarity. Its purpose is to share the tremendous career and achievements of Mrs. Judi Dench, and it happily is lacking what biography has often become. It is not several hundred pages of dubious gossip or borderline slander. It is not a litany of innuendo from those who claim some dubious relationship to the subject and then do their best to damage the individual's reputation. If you are looking for gossip-strewn trash, buy history as revised and fictionalized by Kitty Kelly. Mr. John Miller has written a wonderful book about a woman of substance and of great personal and professional merit. Unlike other biographers who survive based upon how low they will sink for tabloid attention, he did not write whatever someone would spew to relate a story that was not there.
Dame Judi's career has spanned a period that has allowed her to work with many of the greatest names of the theatre of the 20th Century. Additionally the actresses, the Directors and Playwrights also read like a list of those most accomplished in their fields. Many fans first met her as "M" in the James Bond Film Series, or as "Mrs. Brown", in her portrayal of Queen Victoria, or Queen Elizabeth in "Shakespeare In Love". The latter two films won her nominations for The Academy Award and the trend continued this year in Chocolat.
If you are interested in a story of a hard working actress, a woman who is a consummate professional, and respected by virtually all who have worked with her, this book is for you. However if you are like the journalist that opened a press conference by asking her a personal and intimate question, which caused her to rightfully dismiss the press conference format of dirt gathering from that day on, you will have to look elsewhere.
This is a great book about a woman who has succeeded in all areas she chose, and has done so with style and without the sordid notoriety that passes for fame today. Hers' is not a career of 15 minutes or 15, 30, or 45 years, but more like another legend Sir John Gielgud, who when he hit his 90th birthday never thought to pause.
Mr. Miller is to be commended for writing a worthwhile book and not a hardbound tabloid. If he seems less than objective due to the praise he has collected from her peers, it in fact only does "seem" that way. There are accomplished people today who can be admired and pointed to as role models. This book documents one. The other group tends to be long on press clippings and short on substance, but they also unfortunately sell books by the ton to book reading voyeurs.
Mr. Miller has written a work for the other readers.
