All About My Mother

'Thrilling, chilling, uproarious and unputdownable' THE TIMES
'A feel-good tale and joyous love letter' GUARDIAN
'It is IMPOSSIBLE for a book to be more delightful than this' CAITLIN MORAN
'Deliciously readable and deeply touching' DAILY MAIL
'Funny and fascinating' OLDIE
'A zinger' DAILY TELEGRAPH An icon at twenty-seven and voted sexiest woman of all time forty years later, Diana Rigg was Emma Peel, the catsuited Avenger and 007's only wife. She was equally unforgettable as Medea, Mother Courage, Mrs Danvers and Game of Thrones' Queen of Thorns. Stephen Sondheim wrote a song for her; Ted Hughes translated a play; Laurence Olivier called her 'Tits Rigg'. She fearlessly fought for equal pay and took the Daily Mail to court for their campaign against her (winning both times). Always witty and direct, when asked what it meant to become a dame, she replied, 'I think it means I'm not supposed to say "fuck" anymore.' Offstage, she was a gloriously naughty, deeply loving, take-no-prisoners mother to her only child, Rachael Stirling. Little surprise that Rachael became an actress - here she shows that she is a writer too. All About My Mother is both a showstopping mother-daughter memoir and the vivid life of a legend all rolled into one. Diana Rigg never wrote her autobiography but in this raw, vibrant and tender book, written by the person who knew her best, she lives again on the page.

Rachael Stirling