Hell_driver

Could any of you recommend anywhere I could obtain the biography or any book(s) about Alastair Sim?
Can't find anything in Brum or on amazon. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Steve Crook

Dance and Skylark: Fifty Years with Alastair Sim by his wife, Naomi Sim.
London: Bloomsbury, 1987. ISBN 07475000525

It's unlikely you'll find a new copy but you might well be able to get it through your local public library or go to ABE Books (The Advanced Book Exchange). They act as a clearing house for second hand booksellers from around the world. Do a search. If nobody is offering one for sale at the moment, you can add it to your "wants list" and ABE will email you when a copy is offered for sale.

It's a great book. As well as telling all about Alastair and the family it also describes how they semi-adopted the young George Cole (& later, karl Howman and other young actors) to teach him/them the craft.

Steve

Hell_driver

Thanks for that Steve,

I had ordered this book from amazon about 10 days ago only for them to send me an e mail informing me that the only copy they had had been bought by somebody else the day before and they hadn't yet removed it fron the listings.

Steve Crook

Remember that the sellers on ABE are second hand book-sellers, not individuals.
If there are any problems with the sale then you can go to ABE for resolution.

I've bought a LOT of books through ABE and only had one problem where it wasn't as advertised.
The seller immediately offered me a full refund and to pay the postage. Until they remembered that I was in the UK (they were in the States) when they said I may as well keep it and they'd just refund me - which they did.

The only thing you need to watch out for is when a book-seller gets a book which isn't in their area of expertise & they have no idea of the price it should be sold at. So they try it at a high price. If anyone buys at that price, the seller won't complain. If nobody buys, after a while they might reduce the price (some books have been listed at crazily high prices for a few years) or just withdraw it. But you never see a sale completed on ABE like you do on eBay so you don't know if the seller has withdrawn it or if it's been sold. And another seller might see it being withdrawn and assume it was sold at that high price, so they offer it for a similar price, and so the prices creep up.

Steve

David Brent

Like Steve I can highly recommend Abebooks.
I have picked up many hard to get books at bargain prices from seller's throughout the world.
Some seller's do ask high prices for certain used book's though.
For some time now I've been trying to get a copy of "Good Morning Boy's - Will Hay Master Of Comedy" by Ray Seaton & Roy Martin.
There are copies currently available on Abebook's, but the prices range from $150 US to $337 US + postage.

I'm also interested in the book "What A Performance - The Life Of Sid Field" by John Fisher. A copy is currently available at around $26 US + postage. It's a difficult book to get, especially out here in Australia, so I may treat myself and buy it.

There are thread's on this forum for the exchange of films and television programs between member's. Maybe we should also have one for BritMovie book titles.

Dave.

Rob Compton

I fully agree with Steve's and Dave's comment about how good Abebooks is - I've also used it extensively. Just one point - I would go to www.abebooks.co.uk first, rather than the US .com site, since that gives you the chance to list UK based booksellers first, in £ sterling, and then others afterwards. Might save on the postage costs, though of course it all depends on who has what books.

rgds
Rob

Hell_driver

Thanks everybody had a look at ABE books & found what I was looking for.
It was more than I would have paid normally but it's a Christmas present for somebody so what the heck.
You never know it may earn me some brownie points later in life.

Miss Fritton

Hi

The only biography touching on Alastair Sim's life is Dance & Skylark by his late widow Naomi, but I recall being in touch with a Mark Simpson a few years ago who was in the throes of trying to get his own tribute published - does anyone out there have any news on this? I had Mark's email address but it's no longer usable.

Thanks

Miss Fritton

Windthrop

The published biography by his widow though fascinating is alittle bit 'light' on his career details as it chronicles their life together. I have not not heard any news on a current biography in progress BUT there is a website dedicated to him with a quite a lot of detail on stage/film/tv work and more info promised. If there is to be another biog they had better hurry up cos many of is surviving colleages aint spring chickens

Aaryk Noctivagus

It would be a pity if his life story was lost...

Quick somebody grab George Cole... don't be rough though he is looking progressively more fragile.

Wee Sonny MacGregor

Totally agree with Windthrop. Fascinating though his wife's book is, there is a crying need for a full scale biog of the great man. Far lesser actors have been given the full treatment

Ironically, remaindered copies of "Dance and Skylark" were plentiful at one time. I got mine for £4.99 in Charing Cross Road.

Moor Larkin

I was sifting through some old Fifties British mgazines last evening and noted a couple of reviews of plays featuring George Cole and Alastair Sim. Having realised from posts on this forum that Sim was very much Cole's mentor, I took a lot more interest in them than I had done previously. One play was 'Mr. Bolfrey', which was actually produced by Mr. Sim and featured Mr. Cole. I'm sure these guys must have built very strong relationships rehearsing and acting together for weeks and months - even more so than the friendships that derive from film-making.

Wee Sonny MacGregor

George Cole was virtually adopted by him. I seem to recall that later Cole lived next door to Sim (It's a while since I read Dance and Skylark)

Steve Crook

George was evacuated during the war and lived with Alastair & Naomi. After he grew a bit too old for that sort of treatment Alastair & Naomi did the same sort of mentoring with other actors. The most famous of those other actors is Karl Howman

Steve

Moor Larkin

I recall from Kenneth Griffiths' autobio that he and his wife did a similar thing with Peter O'Toole when the young actor first came to London. 'Lodgings' seemed to play a big part in actors lives back in the Fifties. I have wondered if that is why lodging-houses seemed to feature in British movies from those times. (Hell Drivers had them all 'lodging' and I recall that a big part of the plot of Two Living, One Dead relied on characters living in a lodging house.). The concept must seem very strange to the modern world of bed-sits.