Sheila Hancock - Just Me

http://www.bloomsbury.com/justme
Sheila Hancock talks about Just Me.

In The Two of Us Sheila Hancock relived her life with John Thaw -- years packed with love and family, work and houses, delight and despair. And then she looked ahead. What next? Gardening, grannying and grumbling, while they all had their pleasures, weren't going to fill the aching void that John had left.

'Live adventurously', a piece of Quaker advice, was hovering in her mind. So, putting her and John's much-loved house in France on the market -- too many memories -- she embarked, instead, on a series of journeys. She tried holidaying alone, contending with invisibility and budget flights. She tried travelling in a group, but the questions she wanted to ask were never the ones the guide wanted to answer. She tried relaxing -- harder than you might think. Finally, heading out of her comfort zone, she found her travels and new discoveries led her back to her past: to consider her generation -- the last to experience the Second World War -- and the kind of person it made her.

Just Me is a book about moving on, but it is also about looking back, and looking anew. Sheila, whether facing down burglars and easyJet staff (cross her at your peril) or making friends with waiters and taxi drivers, whether unearthing secrets in Budapest, getting arrested in Thailand, exulting in the art of Venice or mingling with the Mafia in Milan, is never less than stimulating company. Honest -- because if you can't say what you think at seventy-five, when can you? -- insightful and wonderfully down-to-earth, she is a woman seizing the future with wit, gusto and curiosity -- on her own.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Sheila Hancock
• Just Me
• Bloomsbury Publishing
• John Thaw
• Thaw
• The Two of Us
• grief
• Moving on
• Who do you think you are
• Bestseller
• British Book Awards
• War
• Evacuation
• Writing
• Inspiration
• Journey
• Travel

[anquetil57]

i think she is a fabulous woman.

[puma4501]

I live in Ukraine. And we have here some kind of shops called "Second hand" where you can buy things which were used already by someone else at a very cheap price. I do not buy clothes or shoes there, but I do buy English books, because I am learning it. I am so glad I bought "The two of us" by Sheila Hancock. I am so proud I have a piece of the life of the British people, because I realize now this woman and her husband were very noteable people in the British art, culture and history

[Thereisonlythemoment]

Fascinating woman, wonderful actress, plus a dedicated wife and mother. You could tell there was not just great love between her and John Thaw but great admiration and respect. Lovely to see that in any loving committed relationship.

[tonfeddtrys]

Dear Sheila in your book "The two of us, you wrote that aperson had written to give you comfort and the poem was I think called "If you should go before me," Ive searched for it but cannot find it, can you help please? Thanks Audrey Hartland. Audrey@hartland28.eclipse.co.u­k. many thanks

[blondesprite1]

I think she is fabulous too!

[nichirenista]

what an inspiration