Joyce Grenfell - Janie Hampton

Joyce Grenfell (1910-1979) was a British institution and one of the country's best-loved entertainers, immortalized in roles such as the gym mistress, Miss Gossage (Call me Sausage), in The Happiest Days of Your Life, and Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's films. She achieved success as a writer and performer of songs and monologues on stage and radio at a time when it was unusual for a woman of her background to work at all. Joyce's mother was the daughter of an American railroad millionaire and her aunt was the MP Nancy Astor, so she grew up among the rich and famous, both at Cliveden and in Chelsea. She always claimed that her stage career began by accident, but this biography reveals that she nurtured her talent with dedication, ambition and discipline. During the war she sang to the troops in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on long and exhausting tours. After 1945 she honed her skills in revues and went on to create solo shows which filled theatres in the West end and on Broadway. Joyce revealed little about her private life in her two autobiographies, and after her death her image was fiercely guarded by her devoted husband Reggie and her close friends, so that she came to be remembered as almost unnaturally perfect. No, at last, it is possible to show her with all her human failings as well as her humour, kindness and generosity. Janie Hampton grew up knowing Joyce as a family friend and has had access to unpublished letters and diaries, and to the memories of her surviving friends, relations and colleagues for this biography. She explores Joyce's intense relationship with her brother and her mother; her sadness over her childlessness; her love affair in Cairo with Prince Aly Khan; her mixed feelings about actors and the theatre; her moving acts of philanthropy and her faith in Christian Science which enabled her to endure the pain of cancer without medical treatment. The result is an affectionate portrait of a unique complex and lovable person.