This Much Is True

Best of all, my beloved Heather, has remained my rock and anchor throughout the roller-coaster ride of my life. Now you’ve read the stories (those the lawyers have allowed me to retain) of my adventures across the last eighty years — you might be as surprised as I am, that she has chosen to stick by me. I have been blessed. This much is true.

Acknowledgements

Georgina Laycock and Rose Davidson must be first in this list. They guided me through the writing of this book, gently but firmly. They call themselves editors, in reality they have needed to also be babysitters and care workers. No words can express my gratitude. My mistakes are mine, all the good bits they honed and burnished. Dear ladies — thank you.

All the other names here have been kind to me over the last eighty years. It’s a long list, and horribly incomplete, but I want to pay tribute to those who have particularly helped me along the way:

Jan Adams, Stefania Alboretti, Sally Alekna, Ann Alexander, Bernice Alexander Jones, Robin Amadio, Irma Anita & Remo Ricci, Moira Armstrong, Jane Asher, Rowan Atkinson, Caroline Barker, Glen Barnham, Libbie Barr, Sheila & Laura Benson, John Bett, David Bitel, Joyce Blair, Becky Brand, Jo Brand, David Bree, Simon Brett, Juliet Brightmore, Sheila Brill, William Broadhead, Simon Callow, Gabriella Capisani, Macey Carsey & Tom Werner, the casts of Wicked and Me and My Girl (you know who you are), Daniela Cesarei, Kathy Chalfant, Paul Cheifitz, Greg & Julie Chittick, Ann Churchill-Brown, Katerina Clark, David Clews & all at Two Four, Mike & Linda Cochran, Denise Coffee, Sarah Collier, Justin Coober-Lake, Suzanne & Walter Coppenrath, Jill Corner, Deb Cox, Laurie Critchley and all at Southern Pictures, Nora Crook, Blanche D’Alpuget & Bob Hawke, Kay Daniels, Lucy Darwin, Luca Deidda, Judi Dench, Ken & Tina Danziger, Essie Davis, Hugues Delage, Marian Diamond, Lady Anne Dodd, Simon Draper & Alicia Kerr, Fiona Eagger, Diana Eden, Barnaby Edwards, Ros Edwards, Ben Elton, Kate Feast, Helen Ford, Francesca Franco, Stephen Fry, Sophy Gairdner, Robb Gardner, Diane Gelon, Marie & Bobby George, Jo & Ellen Gerber, Peter Geschiere, Jon Gilbert, Joy & Don Glover, Jean Gooder, Joan Goodman, Dean Grant, Richard E. Grant & Joan Washington, Beryl Green, Waris & Shama Habibullah, Jackie Haliday, Lady Nickie & Sir Peter Hall, Paul Hamman, Roger Hammond, Margo Harley, Ken & Joan Harrison, Michael Haslam, John Henshall, Patricia Hodge Owen, Liz Hodgson, Ong Hok Ham, Olivia Homan, Jennifer & Don Howard, Charlotte Hutchinson, John Hyslop, Gloria Jacobson, Jonathan James-Moore, Martin & Ros Jarvis, Peter Jarvis, Marie & Dan Jessel, Mark Jones, John Jordan, Richard Jordan, Joel Keating, Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black, Michael Kilgarrif, Lindy King, Tom & Kate Kinninmont, Neil & Glenys Kinnock, Robert Kirby, Alan Knight, Peter Lavery, Jeremy Lawson, Iain Leighton, Ruth Leon, Penelope Lerner, Annabel Leventon, Sue Limb, Mrs Lipsey, John Lloyd, Susan Loewenberg, Sylvester McCoy, Andrew McKinnon, Leigh, Margi & Elaine McLaughlin, Leith McPherson, Carol Macready, Ruth McVey, ‘Chuck’ Mallett, Jill Margo, Natasha Morgan, Robin Morgan-Bentley, Mary Murnane, Genni Nevinson, Michele & Graham Newstead, Graham Norton, John Norton-Smith, Valda & Ronnie Norwitz, Biddy O’Brien, Rohan Onraet, Judy Page, Jack Palladino, Dave Pask, Jose Patterson, Robert Paul, Mark Pawsey, Christine Payne, Biddy Peppin, Stewart Permutt, Rose Pickthall, Nigel Planer, Rosella Pugliese, Pamela Rabe, Saul Radomsky & Oded Schwartz, Esther Rantzen, Carol Regan, Sandy & Dianne Rendel, Griff Rhys Jones, Vanessa Robb, Michael Robinson, Rabbi Michael Roth, Karl & Sue Sabbagh, Susan Sampliner, Valerie Sarruf, Alexei Sayle, Gerald Scarfe, Phillip Schofield, Arlene & Larry Schwartz, Kenneth See, Paolo Serafini, Wendie Shaffer, Alan Shallcross, Roy & Ann Sharples, Tony Sheffield, Richard Simpson, Professor Michael Slater, Don Smith, Susan Smith, Ellinor Sokole, Peter Sokole, Nancy Stieber, Sandra Sutherland, Louis Theroux, Marina Thurairatnam, David Timson, The Hon. Hilary Todd, Janet Todd, Claire Tomalin, Jenny Topper, Ann Tricklebank, Selwyn & Carol Turiansky/Torrance, Mahnaz Vaillancourt & Shahnaz Amanat, Kerry Washington, Philip & Wendy Watson, Dudley Werner, Ann Whitehead, Sallie & Dave Wille, Enyd Williams, Holly Willoughby, Dan & Sallie Wolsoncroft, Rabbi Roderick Young. And last, but by no means least. my wise, kind, generous and infinitely patient personal assistant of twenty-two years, Denise Wordsworth.

Thank you so much. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Credits

Text

Extract from ‘May-Day Song for North Oxford’ by John Betjeman from John Betjeman, Collected Poems, reproduced by permission of John Murray (Publishers). Extracts from Blackadder, reproduced by permission of Richard Curtis and Ben Elton.

Pictures