Sybil Thorndike

"Sybil Thorndike was one of the most remarkable women of the twentieth century. Loved and admired as a leading actress, she was also an ardent feminist, socialist and pacifist, who fought throughout her life for a better and more peaceful world." "In her youth she toured America and Canada, playing over a hundred Shakespearean parts. Throughout the first world war she led the pioneering Old Vic company while bringing up four children. In the second world war she and her actor/director husband Lewis Casson took productions of Shakespeare and Euripides to the mining areas of Wales. Afterwards she witnessed the devastation of post-war Europe while touring with a company headed by Laurence Olivier, for whom she was a surrogate mother, and Ralph Richardson. Later she and Lewis Casson toured the world with their celebrated poetry recitals, visiting Australia five times." "With unique access to hundreds of unpublished letters, Jonathan Croall has produced a sympathetic but critical authorised biography of the vicar's daughter who became a theatrical legend. Through interviews with nearly two hundred actors, directors and playwrights, and extended conversations with members of her family, he captures in absorbing detail her larger-than-life personality. He also reveals the intense, often violent nature of her relationship with Lewis Casson, and her struggles to combine motherhood with a glittering stage career and an active political life."--Jacket.