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  • Published: 3 August 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099503040
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $29.99

Entirely Up to You, Darling



'Actor and director Richard Attenborough is a giant of British cinema - and one of the best connected men in the world of showbusiness ... Now he's telling his extraordinary story ... Moving and enthralling' Daily Mail

Richard Attenborough and Diana Hawkins have been friends and colleagues for nearly 50 years.They have now teamed up to write this frank and funny account of their unlikely partnership and his extraordinary life.

Together, laughing and squabbling, they have travelled the world, meeting people and making films. Among the eclectic cast of characters who appear in this two-handed memoir are Steve McQueen, Mother Teresa, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Mugabe, Edward G Robinson, Ronald Reagan, David Lean, Margaret Thatcher, John Mills, Steven Spielberg, Noel Coward, Indira Gandhi, Gordon Brown and Nelson Mandela.

Prompted by his adventures in the movie business, Attenborough reflects on the highs and lows of a long life, both in and out of the public gaze. He writes revealingly of his passion for football and politics, of his avuncular relationship with Princess Diana and finally about the tsunami tragedy which engulfed his family in December 2004.

  • Published: 3 August 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099503040
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $29.99

About the authors

Richard Attenborough

Famous for more than sixty film performances, beginning in wartime with In Which We Serve and continuing with such classics as Brighton Rock, The Angry Silence, 10 Rillington Place, The Great Escape, Miracle on 34th Street and Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Richard Attenborough has always fought tenaciously for the survival of British cinema. As a producer/director he has also been the driving force behind Gandhi, Oh! What a Lovely War, A Bridge Too Far, Cry Freedom and Shadowlands. He was knighted in 1976, appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in 1987 and became a life peer in 1993. He has chaired numerous professional organisations including Channel 4 Television and the British Film Institute and, over the years, has worked tirelessly for a wide range charities.

Diana Hawkins, formerly a broadcaster and latterly a film producer, wrote the storyline for Chaplin and, as Diana Carter, three novels and a children's book. She is currently an executive director of Dragon International Studios, a company chaired by Richard Attenborough, which is building a new film making facility in South Wales.

Diana Hawkins

Famous for more than sixty film performances, beginning in wartime with In Which We Serve and continuing with such classics as Brighton Rock, The Angry Silence, 10 Rillington Place, The Great Escape, Miracle on 34th Street and Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Richard Attenborough has always fought tenaciously for the survival of British cinema. As a producer/director he has also been the driving force behind Gandhi, Oh! What a Lovely War, A Bridge Too Far, Cry Freedom and Shadowlands. He was knighted in 1976, appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in 1987 and became a life peer in 1993. He has chaired numerous professional organisations including Channel 4 Television and the British Film Institute and, over the years, has worked tirelessly for a wide range charities.

Diana Hawkins, formerly a broadcaster and latterly a film producer, wrote the storyline for Chaplin and, as Diana Carter, three novels and a children's book. She is currently an executive director of Dragon International Studios, a company chaired by Richard Attenborough, which is building a new film making facility in South Wales.

Praise for Entirely Up to You, Darling

One of the most readable and entertaining showbusiness memoirs I have read

Sunday Express

There is, in Attenborough's life, as arresting a sense of narrative as in his films

Scotland on Sunday

Actor and director Richard Attenborough is a giant of British cinema - and one of the best connected men in the world of showbusiness ... Now he's telling his extraordinary story ... Moving and enthralling

Daily Mail

Classic Attenborough ... So riveting that I was up till 2am reading it

Simon Hattenstone, Guardian

They make for enjoyable reading because Attenborough has had such a rich and varied life

Sunday Times

Richard Attenborough's autobiography is the most compelling you'll read all year.The narrative is packed with big name anecdotes and insights into acting, film making, family life, love and personal tragedy. It's funny, entertaining and very moving.

Book of the month, Sainsbury’s Magazine

Marvellously readable. Attenborough's passion reverberates on the page and the stories are good

Daily Telegraph

A compelling, self-deprecating and at times puckish memoir... In fact, it's in a superior biographical league due to the fact that Attenborough and Hawkins have, with remarkable modesty and assiduousness, top-loaded it with information you actually want to know

Time Out