No Room for Secrets (Paperback)

by Joanna Lumley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous; Purdey in The New Avengers; Bond Girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service; Sapphire in Sapphire and Steel; a castaway in Girl Friday; actress; model; writer; campaigner; inventor; TV presenter and journalist: Joanna Lumley has played many roles in her lifetime, but rarely had the opportunity to reveal her true self. Intimate, funny, intriguing and moving, No Room for Secrets is a more surprising and revealing autobiography than any sensational 'kiss and tell' memoir you will ever read. Inside you will find the real Joanna Lumley.

About the Author
Joanna Lumley was born in India and grew up in England and the Far East. She started out modeling for Jean Muir and soon went on to become one of Britain's best-loved actresses. In 1995, Joanna was awarded with an OBE shortly after making the documentary film Girl Friday.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141015462
• ISBN-13: 978-0141015460
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #676,400 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, soulful autobiography, September 12, 2005

By	T. Bently "tbently" (Berkshire, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: No Room for Secrets (Hardcover)

Joanna Lumley chooses not to go down the usual biographical route. Instead of charting the progress of her career she instead stages a kind of free-falling description of her life as she tours the rooms of her London house and allows particular objects or photographs to stir memories.

She has a particular gift for storytelling and in describing her childhood. There is a kind of gentle humor throughout which is achieved more by choosing exactly the right word to describe something rather than by jokes. For instance, she imagines a stable of horses as looking "like an equine rugby team".

Less successful are her attempts at travelog, which seem to take the form of pages culled from her diary. However, overall her technique of darting from subject to subject is enticing as we gain bizarre glimpses into her everyday life (watching tv quizzes in the kitchen) and her philosophy.

This is the most unshowbizzy of memoirs and will find favor with people who enjoy reading biographies generally rather than fans of Absolutely Fabulous, which receives scant mention.

4.0 out of 5 stars If you like Lumley, this is the book for you!, July 8, 2008

By	Anonymous (Illinois USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Room for Secrets (Hardcover)

She was candid and reflective in her bio, sharing just enough of her life story to make it interesting without it coming across as a confessional or expose. She has a great grasp of details and some history in the book that really made me admire her even more as a person.