The definitive biography of Maggie Smith, grande dame of stage and screen, and a national treasure; named best memoir at the Woman & Home Readers' Choice Awards and Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4.

Leading drama critic Michael Coveney invites you on a tour of over 50 of London's most iconic and important theatres, with stories of the architecture and the productions which have defined each one. Sumptuous photographs by Peter Dazeley of the public areas, auditoriums and backstage areas complete the picture.

This is the vital story of the amateur theatre as it developed from the medieval guilds to the modern theatre of Ayckbourn and Pinter, with a few mishaps and missed cues along the way. Michael Coveney – a former member of Ilford's Renegades - tells this tale with a charm and wit that will have you shouting out for an encore. Between the two world wars, amateur theatre thrived across the UK, from Newcastle to Norwich, from Bolton to Birmingham and Bangor, championed by the likes of George Bernard Shaw, Sybil Thorndike, and J B Priestley. Often born out of a particular political cause or...