The Man Who Was Private Widdle

Description

Roger Lewis’s superb monograph about Carry On star Charles Hawtrey is in two parts, the first dealing with his career, which began as early as the 1930s as a child actor on the West End stage, and culminated in his camp performances in the Carry On films, after which he rarely worked again. Lewis devotes the second half of the book to Hawtrey’s peculiar life and especially the thirty years he spent living alone in Deal on the Kent coast, where the actor’s nocturnal activities got him barred from every pub in the town, as well as the nearby Royal Marine barracks. Lewis tells the grim tale with sensitivity and reverence for its subject, on the way taking a few cattish swipes at members of the Carry On team he feels much less sympathy for, such as Kenneth Williams and director Peter Rogers. This is the original hardback edition in very good condition.