No one delivers a tart line quite as waspishly as Dame Maggie Smith. Despite her age, 81, the actress’s long and distinguished career is still in full sail, one of the most recognisable stars of the screen. She deserves a riveting biography.
Alas, this biography by Michael Coveney fails to do that. It struggles through endless intricacies of back-stage bitch-slapping and the arcana of British theatre that should have been fascinating.
Instead, the book turned out to be a yawn-maker, something Smith never is.
There’s far too much waffle about actors of whom most readers today will have no recollection. Biographies should concentrate on the subject, not the labyrinthine histories of their peers.
Take the example of Smith’s affair with Robert Stephens. That should be an easy target for a tempting telling. Instead, Coveney produces this boring line: “He and Maggie embarked on a clandestine affair in early 1964 that was initially an inevitable consequence of working proximity.” Then he canters on to chat about Lynn Redgrave. Maggie Smith: A Biography by Michael Coveney is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson