Mixed Fancies - Brenda Blethyn

In this funny and charming memoir, the star of "Secrets and Lies" tells her remarkable story for the first time. Born in Ramsgate during the 1940s, Brenda Bottle was the youngest of nine in a poor but close family. She left school to work as a secretary for British Rail, where she met her husband. But by the age of twenty-seven, the marriage was over. Brenda left her job and with the little she had saved, enrolled at Guildford Drama School. And so her life as an actress began. One of Britain's best-loved actresses, Brenda Blethyn has dazzled in a vast number of roles, including her performances as downtrodden Cynthia in Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies" and as the man-eating Mari Hoff in "Little Voice", for which she received Oscar nominations. On stage, television and film she has worked with our greatest writers and directors - Alan Bennett, Tom Stoppard, Sam Mendes, Peter Hall - and actors - including Michael Caine, Jude Law, Julie Walters, Brad Pitt, Ewan McGregor and John Hurt. Brenda is one of Britain's finest character actresses, famous for playing her roles with social realism and warmth, wit and humour - characters her audience empathise with.