The real-life dame and on-screen dowager countess, who has died aged 89, earned fame in her 70s and 80s for blockbuster roles. But her early work at the National Theatre marked her out as a talent for the agesDame Maggie Smith’s trophy cabinet reflected her extraordinary achievements across theatre, film and television – and in the biggest arenas of British and US culture, from the BBC to Hollywood, the West End to Broadway. A measure of her versatility and durability is that, in the 1960s, she played nine major roles in the formative years of the National Theatre, but also, from the start of the 2000s, appeared in five series of Downton Abbey, the ITV Sunday night series that became one of the biggest popular hits of the new millennium.Her role in that show was Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, who lived in such a bubble of exclusive comfort that, in trademark one-liners, she would drawl in mystification, for example: “What is a ‘weekend’?” That acerbic superiority was a signature throughout Smith’s career, including the part that brought her first Academy award in 1970, against a shortlist also featuring Liza Minnelli and Jane Fonda, for the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, adapted from Muriel Spark’s novel about a maverick, arrogant schoolteacher in Edinburgh. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-27 13:37:47 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 11:36 Little, Brown and Abacus has appointed Clare Smith, currently HarperPress publishing director, to the role of publishing director fiction, Little, Brown and Abacus. Smith will begin on 19th September, reporting to Richard... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 25/07/2011 - 16:05 W H Smith has launched a new half-price book promotion in partnership with mobile phone network O2, which it said has the potential to reach 22 million new customers. Priority Moments, which launches today (25th July), allows... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 15/07/2011 - 08:46 The industry is "haemorrhaging talent" as authors and illustrators are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living in the children's sector. Agent Caroline Sheldon said that she estimated that fewer than half of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 29/06/2011 - 14:20 The O'Brien Press has bought rights to a memoir by "X Factor" contender Mary Byrne. Managing director Ivan O'Brien bought world rights from Will Talbot, at Modest Management. The book, This is My Life, will be published in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After years of refusing to release her boy-wizard books in electronic format, Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling is finally taking the digital plunge, launching an online store that will sell Harry Potter ebooks directly to consumers and a social-networking site designed to keep the Potter... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Thu, 23/06/2011 - 11:15 Grahame Baker-Smith has won this year's CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for his novel FArTHER (Templar). In his acceptance speech today he attributed his award to "a complete change of style" after 15 years in the field, and in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 07:55 Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood and Christopher Eccleston are to star in an adaptation of Mary Norton's classic children's novel The Borrowers this Christmas. The 90-minute drama, penned by Merlin" writer Ben Vanstone and produced by Working Title... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 14:12 Women dominate the first-ever The Bookseller Rising Stars, an annual listing which highlights the people who will shape the British book trade. Two-thirds26 of 39 entriesof Rising Stars 2011 are women. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:36 Octopus has acquired a vegetable cookery title by chef, eco-restauranteur and star of "The People's Supermarket" Arthur Potts Dawson. Publishing director Stephanie Jackson acquired world rights to Eat Your Veg from Sophie Laurimore of Factual... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 09:49 Dawson Books has been bought by the parent company of book wholesaler Bertrams for £20m. Smiths News plc, which owns Bertrams, announced today (7th June) that the wholesaler and Dawson Books would be "fully integrated"... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 26/05/2011 - 14:00 Titles from Frank Cottrell Boyce, Dick King Smith and Arlene Phillips are among the choices in Richard and Judy's second children's book club. The selected titles are available from today in a 3 for 2 offer through W H Smith.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 26/05/2011 - 11:17 Titles from Frank Cottrell Boyce, Dick King Smith and Arlene Phillips are among the choices in Richard and Judy's second children's book club. The selected titles are available from today in a 3 for 2 offer through W H Smith.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 24/05/2011 - 09:38 Pan Macmillan has bought UK and Commonwealth rights (including ebooks) to seven books by self-published US sensation Amanda Hocking. Julie Crisp, editorial director at Tor, bought the rights from St Martin's Press in the United... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Tue, 24/05/2011 - 15:17 Aurum Press has bought a book delving into archive material from science fiction television show Star Trek. Commissioning editor Sam Harrison acquired UK and Commonweath rights to Star Trek Vault: 40 years from the Archives from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 12/05/2011 - 09:19 Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series of novels, has become the latest writer to sell more than one million Kindle ebooks through Amazon. The author, who is published by Gollancz in the UK, joins Stieg... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 10/05/2011 - 16:38 W H Smith has signed an exclusive deal to extend the Richard and Judy Book Club until 2015. The high street retailer has signed a contract with the celebrity couple to personally read and recommend eight fiction titles to WHS... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 06/05/2011 - 08:40 Pan Macmillan is to reissue selected titles from Wilbur Smith's backlist as hardbacks each year, under the Wilbur Smith Classic Library name, as its major rebranding of the stalwart thriller writer's backlist continues.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 27/04/2011 - 15:46 John Smith & Son deputy chairman Willie Anderson has retired after 38 years' service. Anderson began his career at the academic bookseller as a bookshop sales assistant in 1973 and was the first staff member to be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 21/04/2011 - 15:43 W H Smith plans to open 50 stores in specially identified UK catchment areas over the next six years, with a "pragmatic" international expansion programme also planned. The high street retailer has bought 22 former British... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 18/04/2011 - 15:44 Police intelligence analyst Elizabeth Haynes has won the first Amazon Rising Stars award of 2011. The mother-of-one, who lives in Kent, came top in a consumer-review poll asking readers which one of four Amazon-selected... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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