A collection of letters between Tom Courtenay and his mother interwoven with a portrait of what was going on in his life at the same time, during the heady days of the early sixties when successful young working-class actors were coming to the fore for the first time.
Tom Courtenay shot to fame in the early Sixties with a string of successful films - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Billy Liar and Dr Zhivago to name but a few. Since then he has worked mainly in the theatre, but has also starred in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, created the part of Norman in The Dresser on both stage and screen, performed solo in the brilliant Russian dissident play Moscow Stations in Edinburgh, London and New York, created the role of Serge in the original West End production of Art and played King Lear at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. His latest film is Last Orders? He was knighted in the 2001 New Year's Honours List. Dear Tom is his first book.
Title: Dear Tom: Letters from Home
Author: Courtenay, Tom
ISBN: 9780385600958
Binding:
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
Publication Date: 2000-10-05
Number of Pages: 304
Weight: 0.6397 kg
In this celebrity era where you just kick a ball a couple of times for England and out pops an autobiography, it is perhaps surprising that someone as distinguished as Courtenay, who helped to define an epoch through films such as Billy Liar, hasn't already written one. Dear Tom goes at least some way to redress that. The bulk of the book comprises letters sent by his mother when he left his native Hull for UCL and RADA. It stops at the point when he attracted widespread and glowing press notices in seasons at The Old Vic . Effectively it's a tribute to her and shatters any well-worn myths about growing up in a post-war working class northern family: No trouble at mill here, more the tale of a woman whose active desire to improve her lot proved to be a major influence on the young Tom. Although the letters are warm and touching, the disappointment is that Courtenay does not attempt a fuller account of his life from his own perspective to accompany them.
