{"id":1667,"date":"2009-01-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T23:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2025-01-02T12:02:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T23:02:36","slug":"just-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2009\/01\/21\/just-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>Sheila Hancock<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>Allen &amp; Unwin<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times, January 21st 2009<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Given the rise of individualism, celebrity watching and reality TV, it is not surprising that everybody from Charlotte Church to Cheeta has put out an autobiography in recent years.\u00a0 The trouble is that two key components; an interesting life and an ability to write, are often missing.\u00a0 If present, however, there is no single prescription for a successful memoir, as Barbara Anderson and Sheila Hancock demonstrate in two new autobiographies<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In direct contrast to Barbara Anderson&#8217;s comprehensive memoir (reviewed elsewhere), Sheila Hancock\u2019s <em>Just Me<\/em>, covers only the first few years after her husband, John (Inspector Morse) Thaw\u2019s death.\u00a0 Although a well-respected actor in her own right, she is used to thinking of herself in relation to him, and the only way to let him go is to discover how to be alone.\u00a0\u00a0Travell and work seem to be the best way to do this, and chapters are headed with the various towns and cities she visits during this time.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">A trip to Budapest and the role of Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret adds an additional layer of self-exploration because her experiences as a child of WWII have left a reflexive antipathy against the German people.\u00a0 Recognising this is a shock to this self-described \u201cGuardian-reading liberal\u201d and becomes a second, unexpected ghost she is determined to exorcise.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Perhaps because of her acting background, Hancock is as extroverted as Anderson is reserved, and \u201cJust Me\u201d is as much a work of self-revelation as it is a record of events.\u00a0\u00a0 Whether complaining about the invisibility of the old, being arrested at Bangkok airport, or re-examining childhood memories of the Blitz, it feels just like you are sitting and talking to this delightful woman in real-time.\u00a0Bright, exuberant, funny and self-reflective, she muses on war, love, art, age, and the shortcomings of guided tours.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a better travelling companion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sheila Hancock Allen &amp; Unwin Otago Daily Times, January 21st 2009 Given the rise of individualism, celebrity watching and reality TV, it is not surprising that everybody from Charlotte Church to Cheeta has put out an autobiography in recent years.\u00a0 The trouble is that two key components; an interesting life and an ability to write, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[88,417,368,18,95],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-88","tag-memoir","tag-non-fiction","tag-odt","tag-sheila-hancock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1668,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions\/1668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}