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All About My Mother
'Thrilling, chilling, uproarious and unputdownable' THE TIMES
'A feel-good tale and joyous love letter' GUARDIAN
'It is IMPOSSIBLE for a book to be more delightful than this' CAITLIN MORAN
'Deliciously readable and deeply touching' DAILY MAIL
'Funny and fascinating' OLDIE
'A zinger' DAILY TELEGRAPH
An icon at twenty-seven and voted sexiest woman of all time forty years later, Diana Rigg was Emma Peel, the catsuited Avenger and 007's only wife. She was equally unforgettable as Medea, Mother Courage, Mrs Danvers and Game of Thrones' Queen of Thorns.
Stephen Sondheim wrote a song for her; Ted Hughes translated a play; Laurence Olivier called her 'Tits Rigg'. She fearlessly fought for equal pay and took the Daily Mail to court for their campaign against her (winning both times). Always witty and direct, when asked what it meant to become a dame, she replied, 'I think it means I'm not supposed to say "fuck" anymore.'
Offstage, she was a gloriously naughty, deeply loving, take-no-prisoners mother to her only child, Rachael Stirling. Little surprise that Rachael became an actress - here she shows that she is a writer too. All About My Mother is both a showstopping mother-daughter memoir and the vivid life of a legend all rolled into one.
Diana Rigg never wrote her autobiography but in this raw, vibrant and tender book, written by the person who knew her best, she lives again on the page.
'A feel-good tale and joyous love letter' GUARDIAN
'It is IMPOSSIBLE for a book to be more delightful than this' CAITLIN MORAN
'Deliciously readable and deeply touching' DAILY MAIL
'Funny and fascinating' OLDIE
'A zinger' DAILY TELEGRAPH
An icon at twenty-seven and voted sexiest woman of all time forty years later, Diana Rigg was Emma Peel, the catsuited Avenger and 007's only wife. She was equally unforgettable as Medea, Mother Courage, Mrs Danvers and Game of Thrones' Queen of Thorns.
Stephen Sondheim wrote a song for her; Ted Hughes translated a play; Laurence Olivier called her 'Tits Rigg'. She fearlessly fought for equal pay and took the Daily Mail to court for their campaign against her (winning both times). Always witty and direct, when asked what it meant to become a dame, she replied, 'I think it means I'm not supposed to say "fuck" anymore.'
Offstage, she was a gloriously naughty, deeply loving, take-no-prisoners mother to her only child, Rachael Stirling. Little surprise that Rachael became an actress - here she shows that she is a writer too. All About My Mother is both a showstopping mother-daughter memoir and the vivid life of a legend all rolled into one.
Diana Rigg never wrote her autobiography but in this raw, vibrant and tender book, written by the person who knew her best, she lives again on the page.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
360 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 10, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 18, 2026
Although Diana Rigg never wrote an autobiography her daughter, actress Rachel Stirling, does an excellent job in her place. Diana Rigg's career included theatre, film and television and her most notable roles are all covered here. Stirling reproduces her mother's letters and diary extracts that cover a large part of Rigg's life.
Personally I'm a huge fan of Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in the classic TV series The Avengers & named my daughter Emma, Catherine and Tara after all the leading ladies from The Avengers! She was also wonderful as Tracey in my favourite James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and I was lucky enough to see her on stage in Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams.
Rachel Stirling covers her mother's professional and personal life brilliantly. In addition I thoroughly enjoyed Stirling discussing some of her own theatre, film and television work. Perhaps one day she will write her own story. Let's hope so.
Personally I'm a huge fan of Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in the classic TV series The Avengers & named my daughter Emma, Catherine and Tara after all the leading ladies from The Avengers! She was also wonderful as Tracey in my favourite James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and I was lucky enough to see her on stage in Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams.
Rachel Stirling covers her mother's professional and personal life brilliantly. In addition I thoroughly enjoyed Stirling discussing some of her own theatre, film and television work. Perhaps one day she will write her own story. Let's hope so.
October 29, 2026
Listened to the audiobook which has to be the only way to really appreciate it as Rachael Stirling is brilliant. She’s written a very funny and moving biography/memoir hybrid which works really well and I couldn’t put it down. Really it’s a portrait of her relationship with her mother just as much as of Diana Rigg’s life. They are both pretty outrageously eccentric and have a fascinatingly codependent dynamic. Some of the stories recounted are so candid they make you cringe, some are truly disgusting but somehow still entertaining. There are plenty of nuggets of gossip throughout as well. The only downside to the audiobook is not seeing the photos I assume are included in the physical book, I might have to get it from the library so I can look through to fully appreciate.
October 9, 2026
one of the best Radio 4 book of the week adaptations i can remember. Rachael Stirling's narration is next level awesome.
October 15, 2026
BBC Radio 4 book of the week. This was excellent - makes me want to read the whole book :)
September 25, 2026
Rachael Stirling writes through grief about her beloved but cantankerous mother Diana Rigg. She and her mum were co dependents during Rachael's childhood but Rigg insisted on her daughter leaving home and setting up on her own. Rachael perfectly describes Riggs humour, her everyday speech rhythms and the slightly dated way of how Rigg saw the world. I feel on finishing as though I had known Rigg.And find myself with mixed feelings about this.
October 31, 2026
Why would I read a book about Rachael Stirling's mother? Because said mother is Diana Rigg, or more accurately, Dame Diana Rigg, aka Emma Peel, Tracy Bond, (the only woman James Bond married), and the Queen of Thorns, among other roles.
A classic, tall beauty and classically trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Diana Rigg's enduring love was the theater, but it was in film and TV she gained her fame. The fame meant money and financial stability ultimately, but she had a rollicking life in the meantime. Fiercely competitive (she wouldn't let her daughter beat her in games), totally professional in her career, and refreshingly ribald in her speech, she blazed a trail across the late 20th century and early 21st media. Because Rigg spent so much of her career in the theater, much of her professional life is portrayed there, which is different than the media images we have of her from film and TV.
Want a taste of her attitude? When she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth and was later asked what it meant to her, she said she thought it meant she wasn't supposed to say 'fuck' anymore. Not that it really stopped her. That's Diana.
Stirling had a totally intense relationship with her mother, stormy at times, loving at others, sometimes smotheringly so. She seems to want to be honest in showing all of her mother's characteristics, but of course probably is a little too bias to show all her faults. Still, this is a pretty raw description of a wonderfully tempestuous woman who loved her daughter ferociously.
A classic, tall beauty and classically trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Diana Rigg's enduring love was the theater, but it was in film and TV she gained her fame. The fame meant money and financial stability ultimately, but she had a rollicking life in the meantime. Fiercely competitive (she wouldn't let her daughter beat her in games), totally professional in her career, and refreshingly ribald in her speech, she blazed a trail across the late 20th century and early 21st media. Because Rigg spent so much of her career in the theater, much of her professional life is portrayed there, which is different than the media images we have of her from film and TV.
Want a taste of her attitude? When she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth and was later asked what it meant to her, she said she thought it meant she wasn't supposed to say 'fuck' anymore. Not that it really stopped her. That's Diana.
Stirling had a totally intense relationship with her mother, stormy at times, loving at others, sometimes smotheringly so. She seems to want to be honest in showing all of her mother's characteristics, but of course probably is a little too bias to show all her faults. Still, this is a pretty raw description of a wonderfully tempestuous woman who loved her daughter ferociously.
October 20, 2026
I feel slightly guilty about giving this a 4-star review because it was certainly an unputdownable read. Like the King I adored The Avengers and still carry the torch, watching reruns regularly (I even once missed a meal in Mexico City because episodes were running on a loop on TV)!
The Avengers - quite rightly - plays only a very small part in Rachael Stirling’s intimate biography of her mother (Diana Rigg) since she was one of the great stage actresses of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. But the acting career, although it spreads throughout the book, plays second fiddle to her complicated personal life and her strident opinions on….well, everything!
It’s certainly “warts and all” (almost literally in places) and Dame Diana doesn’t always look good in her daughter’s honest writing.
It’s also gossipy and that’s the reason for the deducted star. Several anecdotes place others who are no longer able to defend themselves or put their side of the story in a bad light. One unpleasant anecdote about Benny Hill could only be known by Rigg and Hill and both are dead. It was uncomfortable to read!
There are many examples of Rigg’s great wit - for example, when her son-in-law asked her if she had ever worked with Oliver Reed, she replied “Darling, I worked ON Oliver Reed”. She was quite a woman and this is well worth the read.
The Avengers - quite rightly - plays only a very small part in Rachael Stirling’s intimate biography of her mother (Diana Rigg) since she was one of the great stage actresses of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. But the acting career, although it spreads throughout the book, plays second fiddle to her complicated personal life and her strident opinions on….well, everything!
It’s certainly “warts and all” (almost literally in places) and Dame Diana doesn’t always look good in her daughter’s honest writing.
It’s also gossipy and that’s the reason for the deducted star. Several anecdotes place others who are no longer able to defend themselves or put their side of the story in a bad light. One unpleasant anecdote about Benny Hill could only be known by Rigg and Hill and both are dead. It was uncomfortable to read!
There are many examples of Rigg’s great wit - for example, when her son-in-law asked her if she had ever worked with Oliver Reed, she replied “Darling, I worked ON Oliver Reed”. She was quite a woman and this is well worth the read.
October 16, 2026
I fell for Diana Rigg as Emma Peel when I was 8 and she vied with Julie Christie for my infatuation for years. As her daughter Rachael Stirling makes clear, this is a family memoir and not a breathy showbiz biography. It is all the better for that, and tells of a mother and daughter who adored each other most of the time. Her early childhood in India shortly before partition left her, as so many others, wistful and yearning for the country that the family had to leave behind when the sub-continent gained independence. Doncaster with grandparents was no match. Her letters from boarding school aged 7 and 8 are exceptionally poignant, but also breathtakingly frank about her naughtiness. There is plenty about her profound love of the theatre and her professionalism, but her love of life and laughter are crucial to appreciating her as a person.
November 11, 2026
What a hoot! A wonderful love letter from Rachel Stirling to her mother. A masterpiece in the art of oversharing. A beautiful portrait of an at-times overly co-dependent relationship. Diana was a bit of a diva, but she earned the right to be so, and she comes across as incredibly hard-working, self-respecting, and just jolly good fun. This is a book you simply MUST experience as an audiobook. Rachel Stirling’s narration is pitch perfect.
October 26, 2026
This was personal to me albeit in a small way. I was a relief nanny for a few weeks to Rachael when she was about 18 months old and lived on the nanny floor with her at the house in Pembroke road and stayed with her in Keir house in Scotland while Diana was in the Edinburgh festival. It was an insight into Diana’s life and I loved reading Rachael’s description of her and her mother’s life. The ending in particular made me cry and her death was beautifully and poignantly described. I have a few photos from my time of staying at Keir house and in Pembroke Road and the book brought back lots of memories of my time with the family in the 70’s
October 7, 2026
Hilarious and heart warming. A fitting tribute to an absolute icon who lived life to the full and made no apologies to fools.
September 19, 2026
4.5 stars
September 15, 2026
What beautiful writing. I’m sure this makes a wonderful read, but hearing it makes an even more special legacy.
September 15, 2026
One of the most beautiful, poignant and wickedly funny books I’ve read in a long while. Overflowing with love it’s a celebration of a life well lived.
I especially recommend the audiobook.
I especially recommend the audiobook.
September 23, 2026
What a fantastic read. Emotional, witty, endearing, and a beautiful homage to the legendary Diana Rigg.
It was truly moving to learn so much more about Diana’s life, career, and the incredible stories that came with it. However, of all the roles Diana had throughout her life, the one that intrigued me most was that of being Rachael’s mother, and just how much love existed between them throughout the ups and downs, as well as all the wonderful times they shared.
You can’t help but find yourself completely transfixed by the closeness between them. When Rachael talks about them being the same person, it really does feel that way — not in an unhealthy sense, but in the way that these two women, who were not only mother and daughter but clearly each other’s true best friend, seemed to understand one another on an incredibly deep level.
They weren’t just alike in looks, but emotionally alike too, even if they didn’t always want to admit it. Each one seemed to need the other, yet it never felt as though either was trying to live in the other’s shadow. Instead, it felt as though they were simply holding on to the fact that they were each other’s light.
I finished this book thinking that I couldn’t decide which woman was the luckiest: Rachael for having Diana as her mother, or Diana for having Rachael as her daughter.
So, in the end, I came to the conclusion that Guy and Jack are the luckiest of all, to have had both of these incredible women in their lives.
It was truly moving to learn so much more about Diana’s life, career, and the incredible stories that came with it. However, of all the roles Diana had throughout her life, the one that intrigued me most was that of being Rachael’s mother, and just how much love existed between them throughout the ups and downs, as well as all the wonderful times they shared.
You can’t help but find yourself completely transfixed by the closeness between them. When Rachael talks about them being the same person, it really does feel that way — not in an unhealthy sense, but in the way that these two women, who were not only mother and daughter but clearly each other’s true best friend, seemed to understand one another on an incredibly deep level.
They weren’t just alike in looks, but emotionally alike too, even if they didn’t always want to admit it. Each one seemed to need the other, yet it never felt as though either was trying to live in the other’s shadow. Instead, it felt as though they were simply holding on to the fact that they were each other’s light.
I finished this book thinking that I couldn’t decide which woman was the luckiest: Rachael for having Diana as her mother, or Diana for having Rachael as her daughter.
So, in the end, I came to the conclusion that Guy and Jack are the luckiest of all, to have had both of these incredible women in their lives.
November 10, 2026
This review contains spoilers.
If you are expecting this book to be a biography of Diana Rigg, then forget it.
It is a series of anecdotes and recollections put together by her daughter, Rachael Stirling, which vary in interest and tastefulness.
For example, I don't really need a detailed description of how Rachael excised her mother's pus filled cyst.
We get virtually no observations about Rigg's stage work in the later part of her career even though Rachael was alive during that period. Rigg's earlier career in 'The Avengers' and 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' is covered, though Stirling merely rehearses what has previously been published elsewhere.
Too often Stirling's voice intrudes at the expense of Rigg's
Do we learn anything about Rigg from this self-indulgent exercise? She had a potty mouth and smoked heavily. That's about it.
This book does a disservice to one of the greatest screen and theatre actresses of the last 50 years.
If you are expecting this book to be a biography of Diana Rigg, then forget it.
It is a series of anecdotes and recollections put together by her daughter, Rachael Stirling, which vary in interest and tastefulness.
For example, I don't really need a detailed description of how Rachael excised her mother's pus filled cyst.
We get virtually no observations about Rigg's stage work in the later part of her career even though Rachael was alive during that period. Rigg's earlier career in 'The Avengers' and 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' is covered, though Stirling merely rehearses what has previously been published elsewhere.
Too often Stirling's voice intrudes at the expense of Rigg's
Do we learn anything about Rigg from this self-indulgent exercise? She had a potty mouth and smoked heavily. That's about it.
This book does a disservice to one of the greatest screen and theatre actresses of the last 50 years.
September 25, 2026
I listened to Rachael Stirling reading this book for Audible and it was captivating. It is a true homage to Diana Rigg, Rachael calls it a eulogy and the love between them is writ large in every sentence. Through her own research, knowledge and experience, Rachael explores the life of her mother as well as her brilliance as an actor in some of the seminal theatre texts of any age. Clearly, theatre was her love, but her contribution to the TV and silver screen cannot be denied as the parts she took presented her anew to every generation. Fabulous. Don't listen to or read the section where Rachael describes both the dying days and her mother's death unless you have spare time afterwards to fortify yourself - perhaps with a Campari as was her mother's wont! All of it is beautifully written, but the final part is heartbreaking and also heartwarming. What a life, and what a woman.
November 8, 2026
An honest and pretty unflinching partial biography of Dame Diana Rigg, written by her daughter, Rachael Stirling. Takes a chronological approach, but if you're looking for a detailed analysis of all Diana Rigg's work, then this isn't that book. Her major screen and theatre roles are covered and contextualised - The Avengers, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Medea and All About My Mother - but lots of 'fan favourites', for example Mother Love, Doctor Who and Game of Thrones - don't even get a passing mention. Clearly that wasn't the sort of biography Stirling wanted to write. This is much more of a deeply personal memoir of a supremely talented and generous actor. Extremely enjoyable and moving, although I could probably have done with one less blackhead-popping anecdote!
September 27, 2026
Wonderful book. Beautifully written. What a woman Diana Rigg, clever beautiful, loving and very focused. Her daughter Rachael wrote a fabulous book. Her Mother would be very proud of her. Xx
September 28, 2026
A wonderful tribute.
What a life.
What a life.
October 1, 2026
An absolute showstopper of a memoir!
October 4, 2026
2.5
Read in Hardback , borrowed from Stirling Library
Read in Hardback , borrowed from Stirling Library
October 13, 2026
I LOVED this!
A brilliant story of an incredible woman told beautifully by her wonderful daughter.
I laughed out loud, cried hard and experienced all the emotions inbetween too!
A brilliant story of an incredible woman told beautifully by her wonderful daughter.
I laughed out loud, cried hard and experienced all the emotions inbetween too!
October 28, 2026
I loved this (and it shows the importance of being spontaneous at the library!). Entertaining and fascinating throughout and, by the end, also very moving.
November 2, 2026
I loved this book.
A beautiful tribute from a daughter to her mother.
A beautiful tribute from a daughter to her mother.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews