The Happy Hoofer

Book excerpt: If you've been enjoying her latest novels Sail Away and Nice Work (If You Can Get It), do not miss Celia Imrie's fantastic original memoir The Happy Hoofer. 'I've always been wilful ... I've always been stubborn and always determined.' One of our best-loved actresses, Celia Imrie would rather have been a dancer. As a child she planned to join the Royal Ballet and marry Rudolf Nureyev. Now she has become one of our finest and funniest performers, on stage, TV and screen - adored for her roles in Acorn Antiques and Dinnerladies, as well as films including Calendar Girls and Nanny McPhee. In her hugely entertaining autobiography, Celia Imrie recounts a life hurtling (not always intentionally) into adventures both on stage and off. Whether it's finding herself on stage with half the scenery stuck to her cardigan, or being kidnapped on her way to location. Somehow she emerges from the chaos that can lie in her wake almost unscathed. Acting, she admits, is a mad, chaotic profession and it is her refreshing honesty, sense of mischief, fun and almost unruffled determination in the face of it all that makes this autobiography a never-ending delight.