Ned's Girl: The Life of Edith Evans

London: Elm Tree Books, 1977. First edition. Very Good +/very good +. Ned's Girl is the unconventional title Edith Evans herself chose for this biography when she authorised her friend and literary executor Bryan Forbes to write it. The book - the first full-length account of her life - is a romance in every sense of the word. It is the story of an extraordinary woman who by her own admission was born 'intoxicated' - a 'raving lump of a girl' with no theatrical background, who started life as a milliner and was then plucked from obscurity by the great Shakespearean innovator William Poel and plonked down firmly in the centre of the English stage, a position she occupied with consistent distinction for 60 years. 'God', she once said, 'was very good to me. He never let me go on tour', which was in fact a slight exaggeration Ned was her revered father but, as this brilliant and entertaining biography shows, at the end of her unique career Edith Evans belonged, finally, to posterity and history may well remember her as the greatest English actress of this century. It is a memorable study, intimate without vulgarity, of a much loved woman who enriched all those who knew her, whether friends or strangers. Mylar cover;brown boards, bumped and faded. dj not price clipped. minor shelf wear. tight binding and clean pages.top edge red.owner inscription in ink. heavy so post and packing to be adjusted accordingly. First Edition AB71