Blessings In Disguise: Sir Alec Guiness

This is not a tell-all exercise in egomania - rather, it is a witty, entertaining account of the people Alec Guiness knew and often worked with, caught for posterity in brilliant pen portraits. The reader will meet Ralph Richardson, Sybil Thorndike, Tyrone Guthrie and John Geilgud. Edith Sitwell presides at the Sesame Club and reconciled to the Catholic Church, and for the occasion Evelyn Waugh dressed in black and white dog-tooth tweeds, a red tie and a boater with red and blue ribbons; Vivien Leigh charms a susceptible admiral in North Africa; Ernest Hemingway is underwhelmed by Noel Coward; and of course, Alex Guinness himself - on his film career, religious beliefs and war experiences, told with modesty, timing, humour and humanity.