And then I found me

by Noel Tovey

'And then I found me' is the triumphant story of Noel Tovey's stellar career in London as an actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, director and curator. For more than 30 years, his acclaimed stage productions reached audiences across Europe, South Africa and Australia.

Martin Luther King's assassination, the end of apartheid and the rise of AIDS are the global backdrop to this bold and deeply moving recollection of glamour and politics.

241 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Nae · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something distinctly odd about reading 2 volumes of someone's autobiography when the person is someone you call friend, yet I do not enter into the picture until page 224 of the second volume "and then I found me" and then only by happenstance and not by name. Noel's first book, "Little Black Bastard" was profoundly disturbing for the horrible experiences his childhood as a part aboriginal boy truly were, but those were so far removed from our friendship that it was something I read, felt my heart break for him, and then moved on to the friend I thought I knew fairly well ... and then came this second book! When we first met Noel he was sitting at our mutal friend Mariam's dinner table here in Sanford, Florida (having met her and Michael when my husband built her horsebarn when they first moved here from England) feeding my young son bits of Cornish hen stuffed with wild rice that I had made and carried over for us to eat at her house. All we knew about Noel was that he was her friend, that he lived in Australia and he used to be in the theater in London. Not that he had this incredibly wonderful career as a dancer, choreographer, and director, and most certainly not that he hob nobbed, as the saying goes, with folks like Rod Stewart! I never knew any of this until I read this second book. The Noel we call friend visited Mariam several times, every time he visited I cooked dinner and took it over (although if I had known at the time what a good cook he was I probably would have been to intimidated to cook for him), and we would sit by her pool or her kitchen table and talk about everything under the sun except what he had done for a living. He happily visited my children's elementary schools several times giving talks about Australia and aborigines, going "walk about," "dream time," and since that was in the days of crocodile Dundee he patiently put up with blood thirsty little boys who only wanted to know if he carried a big knife when he was at home to stab crocs with :) He brought my kids real boomerangs and adopted koala bears at a game preserve for them; sent them postcards from all over when he traveled that to this day my daugher has hanging on her wall in a shadowbox. He had an incredibly varied life and sometimes I am glad I did not know that as well, that I could just think of my friend Noel all those years who was just a really nice man :) I know that writing this book was incredibly cathatric for him and I am really glad that we are a part of his life even if only by long distance now. Thanks for sharing your life with us Noel and I think you have indeed "found yourself for sure!"

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I enjoyed reading about this great man's accomplishments and the who's who of the London scene, however I found that the many mentions about his plays, productions and friends lacked some detail and depth. I did enjoy the sentiment of the book and it is a good read.