JOAN LITTLEWOOD Dreams and Realities by Peter Rankin (Oberon £14.99) If you wanted theatre to present a slice-of-life in the 1950s and 1960s there was one place to go and that was Theatre Royal, Stratford East, when Littlewood was in charge. She was a key figure in British theatre for a time and so successful she had four West End transfers on at the same time. She is probably chiefly remembered for A Taste of Honey, The Hostage, Fings Aint Wot They Used T’Be and Oh What a Lovely War. Rankin gives a vivid idea of what it was like to rehearse with her in his account of what went on during her production of Henry IV. “I never read the critics,” she said, “because if I had I might have given up.”
OUR TIME OF DAY My Life with Corin Redgrave by Kika Markham (Oberon £16.99) is a heartbreaking and therapeutic memoir. Redgrave (the son of Michael and the brother of Vanessa) has a heart attack and then he has no memory at all of the life he once led with his wife. “He no longer looks at me as the Corin I knew. His eyes are neutral, cold and afraid,” writes Markham. “One of the most painful and addictive habits is thinking about our previous life. It’s like picking a scab. You know it will bleed so you shouldn’t, but you can’t help it.”
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