| Contents |
The child who never cried -- I'll do it -- Sound, please -- I was grey -- At home -- Fake it -- Oh dear -- I am typed -- Good evening -- Birds and beasts -- Back to basics. |
| Abstract |
"Alfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father's shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century? As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of him, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films: Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, and James Stewart despair of his detached directing style and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endures cuts and bruises from a real-life fearsome flock of birds. In [this book], Peter Ackroyd wrests the director's chair back from the master of control and discovers what lurks just out of sight, in the corner of the shot."--Amazon.com. |
| Abstract |
Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition-- Hitchcock's childhood was an isolated one. As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of him, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. Ackroyd reveals a jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. The result is a gripping biography of one of the most respected directors of the twentieth century. |
| General note | "Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., London, in 2015."--Title page verso. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-264) and index. |
| Other edition issued | Reproduction of (manifestation): Ackroyd, Peter, 1949- Alfred Hitchcock London : Chatto & Windus, 2015 9780701169930 |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Ackroyd, Peter, 1949- Alfred Hitchcock First United States edition. New York : Nan A. Talese Doubleday, 2016 9780385537421 |
| Genre/form | Biographies. |
| Genre/form | Anecdotes. |
| Genre/form | Anecdotes. |
| Genre/form | Biographies. |
| Genre/form | Biography. |
| ISBN | 9780385537414 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0385537417 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | (ebook) |
| Standard identifier# |
40026532323 |
