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Michael Gambon
  • Published: 29 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804957011
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Michael Gambon

The Authorised Biography

Formats & editions
Hardback
3 Nov 2026
EBook
29 Oct 2026
Audiobook
29 Oct 2026
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A major and definitive portrait of Sir Michael Gambon, one of the greatest actors of the last fifty years who died in 2023.

Jasper Rees, the acclaimed Sunday Times bestselling author of Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, interviewed Gambon more than any other journalist alive, and has been granted exclusive access to Gambon’s personal archive and effects. Rees is in the process of conducting over one hundred interviews with actors, playwrights and directors who across a career that spanned more than half a century were witness to some of Gambon’s most magnificent performances, including Penelope Wilton, Alan Ayckbourn, Brian Cox, Eileen Atkins, David Hare, Judi Dench, Christopher Hampton, Simon Russell Beale, Richard Eyre, Patricia Hodge, Simon Callow, Stephen Poliakoff and his closest friend in theatre, Oliver Cotton.

The biography spans Gambon’s epoch-defining roles on stage, television and screen: the early years as a spear-carrier in Laurence Olivier’s newly formed National Theatre, his pre-eminence as an interpreter of Harold Pinter and Alan Ayckbourn, the triumphs in The Life of Galileo and A View from the Bridge, the screen roles that won him global fame, from Philip Marlow in The Singing Detective to Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films. It promises to be a deeply personal, moving and surprising book that will enrich our understanding of an acting legend who was as hilarious and elusive off stage – renowned for spinning mischievously tall tales – as he was mesmerising and chameleon-like on stage.
  • Published: 29 October 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804957011
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320
Categories:

About the author

Jasper Rees

Jasper Rees is an arts journalist and author who has written for the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and theartsdesk.com, which he co-founded. His previous books include I Found My Horn and Bred of Heaven, both of which were abridged for Radio 4, and a biography of Florence Foster Jenkins. In 2020, Rees published Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. He also edited Victoria Wood Unseen on TV and wrote and presented ‘Loose Chippings’, an episode of Archive on 4 featuring unheard audio from Victoria Wood’s archive.
JR

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Praise for Michael Gambon

‘Let’s Do It is a biography that feels as unflinching and true as it is entertaining and affectionate. Rees pulls off the trick of writing a brilliant tribute while also – somehow, almost – bringing Victoria Wood back to life in all her complicated glory’

Guardian

‘A joy. It paints a rounded portrait of a genuinely nice and kind woman who could also be difficult, scathing, even ruthless’

Daily Mail

‘A joyous read’

Mail on Sunday

‘A smashing biography’

Sunday Express

‘An immersive, authoritative book’

Spectator

‘I would love people to read this beautiful book about the woman I will be forever grateful for in leading the way for me and other women in comedy and for making my life a jollier one’

Miranda Hart

‘Impeccable’

Daily Telegraph

‘Impeccable’

Daily Telegraph

‘Jasper Rees has found the perfect words to convey Victoria's brilliance, in this meticulously researched, immersive and entertaining biography'

Alison Steadman

‘Joyous and revealing... If you're a diehard Wood fan (as I am) you'll find this account of her life wholly engrossing, and it also stands as a wonderful tribute to a pioneering entertainer and her exacting comic genius’

Bookseller

‘Packed with enlightening anecdotes and revealing interviews with her family and closest friends. A real treat’

Independent

‘Rees’s research is wide-ranging and detailed... his analysis is acute and often beautifully articulated’

i Newspaper

‘This biographer is the safest of hands... It does not feel intrusive because it is so richly fed with the memories of those who properly loved her’

The Times

‘This book is absolutely brilliant. So meticulously researched but also full of warmth and fun’

Lucy Porter

‘This superb biography ensures we can’t forget how revolutionary she was’

Oldie

‘This utterly absorbing and beautiful book, written with such insight and kindness, moved me hugely’

Julie Walters

‘You can almost feel him riffling files, rewinding tapes, so carefully is it pieced together. Yet the reward is a 360-degree biography that transforms a beloved entertainer into a real human being’

Sunday Times

Praise from friends and fans of Victoria Wood:

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Press reviews for Jasper Rees's Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood

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