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Flashback

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Flashback
An actor's life
by David Barry
Authors OnLine Ltd
19 The Cinques, Gamlingay, Sandy
Bedfordshire, SG19 3NU, England
Genre: Autobiography
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Are you interested in the real life stories of real live actors? If you are and are particularly interested in British actors, you'll certainly enjoy David's story. It is a book about significant events and people in his acting career of almost fifty years including theatre, film and television.

The basic format of this autobiography is somewhat of a journal which he started in 1998 when he agreed to be in the Bill Kenwright production of Funny Money which toured for 16 weeks and is described as "The Tour from Hell." Scattered throughout this journal are flashbacks about his childhood experiences while touring Europe in the play Titus Andronicus with Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. David was fourteen at the time, and it was the summer of 1957 when Peter Brook's bloody production had people fainting in their seats.

David starred as Frankie Abbott in the hit television sitcoms Please, Sir! and Fenn Street Gang in his early twenties. If I were a theatre goer and more familiar with British entertainment, I'm sure this book would have been more meaningful to me. As I am familiar with Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, I found the flashbacks about the group's tour through Europe to be of particular interest.

David Barry is a very talented man and his writing is a natural extension of his talents. The autobiography is well-written, entertaining and I'm certain will appeal to his fans. I do hope he will write another book with more personal information about himself-his talents, how he studied and prepared, his goals, his family, the problems and realities of living an actor's life, and how one finds the faith that there will be another play . . . when the tour has finished.

In addition to Flashback, the author has written Each Man Kills. Thank you, David, for sharing part of your life with us.

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