At last - the definitive biography of Charles Hawtrey! From Wes Butters, Sony award winning broadcaster and author of "Kenneth Williams Unseen," comes an extensively researched and compelling book almost fifteen years in the making, featuring scores of exclusive interviews, including Hawtrey's inner circle and surviving descendents, never-before-seen photographs, and private documents and correspondence. The result is the first definitive account of a life Hawtrey himself was keen to see evaporate into the mist of history. ...
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At last - the definitive biography of Charles Hawtrey! From Wes Butters, Sony award winning broadcaster and author of "Kenneth Williams Unseen," comes an extensively researched and compelling book almost fifteen years in the making, featuring scores of exclusive interviews, including Hawtrey's inner circle and surviving descendents, never-before-seen photographs, and private documents and correspondence. The result is the first definitive account of a life Hawtrey himself was keen to see evaporate into the mist of history. Years before, Hawtrey started out as a child actor in silent films, he was England's leading boy soprano and worked alongside a positive who's who of the thirties and forties. He had directed films and produced West End shows, starred in three hit TV series and was a prolific radio actor for the BBC. Yet he was never content and spent his life desperately searching for stardom and success, which, in his own deluded way of thinking, always failed to live up to expectations. He wasn't the least bit interested in his reputation or leaving a legacy, growing old disgracefully in Deal, the Kent seaside town he lived in for the last twenty years of his life: collapsing in pubs; swearing at autograph-hunting children; and, taking home teenage rent boys (one of whom set fire to Hawtrey's cottage, with Hawtrey still inside it). He died in 1988. Nine people were at his funeral.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good-dust jacket. 9780955767074. Scarce biography of the troubled British comic, vg in vg jacket; bumping to board and jacket corners else a tight square unmarked copy in unclipped dust jacket; first printing with no later indications; 6.8 X 1.1 X 9.7 inches; 296 pages.
FIRSTLY, WES BUTTERS HAS WRITTEN A HECK OF A GOOD READ. HE REALLY HAS DONE HIS RESEACH AND PRESENTS HIS STORY IN A CLEVER WAY. HOW HE FOUND ALL THE PEOPLE WHO KNEW AND WORKED WITH CHARLIE HAWTREY, I DON'T KNOW....BUT ITS A 'CAN'T PUT DOWN' BOOK. CHARLIES EARLY DAYS WERE A REVELATION TO ME, AND REMINDED ME THAT CHARLIE WAS A STAR IN SO MANY AREAS, AND FOR SUCH A LONG TIME. NEXT BOOK PLEASE WES!
