Telling Some Tales

by Anna Massey

The candid, wryly funny and emotional autobiography of one of the UK’s most respected actresses.

Anna remembers how family life was never easy: Raymond Massey fled the roost for the United States when Anna was little, and re-married. Her mother, Adrianne, was a marvellous hostess who filled the house with an exotic mixture of guests, but it was Nanny who supplied the crucial emotional support, and who remained with Anna until her death. Her first marriage was to Jeremy Brett, most famous for his elegant depiction of Sherlock Holmes for television. They had a son, David, together but the marriage ended in divorce.

From her stage debut in The Reluctant Debutante to her performance in Michael Powell’s notorious film Peeping Tom, Anna Massey tells the story of her remarkable career, peppering it with a whole host of extraordinary, often highly eccentric characters, and includes encounters with theatrical knights Olivier, Richardson, Redgrave and Gielgud, and Noel Coward takes more than one bow. Great friendships are formed with fellow actors like Alan Rickman, Alec McCowen, Dame Judi Dench, and playwright David Hare.

In spite of all the inevitable vicissitudes and upsets, Telling Some Tales ends up as a story of personal happiness, achieved without makeup lighting or script, about a life intensely lived.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 6, 2006

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating memoir from a true veteran of the British stage, screen, tv, radio. She worked with Olivier, Gielgud, Redgraves etc, married for a short time to the charismatic and difficult Jeremy Brett. A real self-portrait, unembellished, very frank.

[Sharon Colarusso Roarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anna Massey has always been one of my favorite actresses. The fact that another one of my favorites, the great actor Raymond Massey, was her father, was a plus for me. My expectation to read her book on both father and daughter was high.
Anna's mother, who was also an actress, and a great socializer, was divorced from her father and Anna, and her brother Daniel, also an actor, had little to no relationship him growing up. Coming from a theatrical and film family, it was always assumed that Anna, whose Godfather was the great director John Ford, would fall into the family tradition. In her book, Anna covers her career working with theatrical knights, Coward, Olivier, Redgrave, Richardson, and Gielgud. She also writes of her friendships with fellow actors Alan Rickman, Alec McCowen, and Dame Judi Dench. She also devotes pages to one of my favorite films, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy. I thoroughy enjoyed those reminisces.
And while Anna certainly covers her long career on both stage and film, as well as her personal life growing up, her relationship, or lack there of, with her brother Daniel, and her marriage to 'Sherlock Holmes' actor Jeremy Brett, I feel like I really don't know any more than I already did from just reading other available information. Although honest, it is also a very retrained telling and the reader feels as if they are missing the bigger picture. I walked away happy that I learned some things I didn't know, but not truly satisfied. I still love Anna Massey I just feel she was not able to open up for the reader beyond what is here.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna Massey tells her tales modestly, in a self-effacing way that is at once revealing but still closed. But she is frank about her fractured and distant relationship with her father, Raymond Massey; her perceptions of Raymond's second wife Dorothy; her marriage to Jeremy Brett. Her reserve is ironic; within her tales are blunt "confessions", I suppose, of her tribulations as an actress, her trust in therapy and her own actings out in her personal life. She provides much insight to her development as an actress; her honest fears of going "dry" on stage combine with descriptions of an ethereal energy of getting a performance "just right". Her modesty is genuine. Her regrets and joys are diplomatically expressed. A cut above the "me me me" autobiographies of big ego actors.

[Simon S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s probably only a three for style and content - she does overuse the word “mammoth”, which I suppose is an achievement of a kind in itself - but I love spending any time with Anna Massey, so it’s a 4 from me.

[Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable!

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

No telling tales really. Anna shares not only the usual stories of growing up with her glamorous parent(s) but also stories about the many roles as an actor in plays, films and television shows. She does name drop a tad (which is probably one of the reasons why I wanted to read it!) and always finds something nice to say about almost everyone - not an ounce of bitchiness except for her father's second wife of whom she has nothing good to say at all. Her personal revelation on stage fright and psychoanalysis is fascinating and I can see why actors themselves are often their own harshest critics. All that digging deep for emotional delivery and audience connection on the stage. Sounds exhausting!

I have always enjoyed her cut-glass English accent which lends itself perfectly to many a wonderful audio book and it is not surprise that she reads her own biography. I would have enjoyed it even more had she paced the silences and not rushed a few passages but overall an interesting and pleasant biography.