Customer Reviews

Two of Us

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Sheila Hancock was married to John Thaw for 28 years. They were wonderful, lovely, sad, dangerous, depressing and glorious years.
She writes in two person of their life together and of their separate lives before they met. Their life together, says Sheila "weathered overwork, pressures of celebrity, drink and cancer, separation and joyful reunions."

I met John Thaw as the indubitable Inspector Morse in the BBC series. What a lovely and wonderful series that was. How were we to know that John was a hopeless alcoholic and depressed person who made himself and his family so unhappy during that time? John's mother left the family when John and his brother were very small. Until late in life, John did not learn to deal with that loss or to realize his alcohol and depression were all a part of this. He was an extremely good looking man and thought of as a superb actor. He led his life as he thought he should, and at a time he realized he needed assistance to survive. He received it and he and Sheila went on to a happy life.

Both John and Sheila had been married before they met. They were meant to be they decided. Sheila's husband died of cancer and John divorced his wife. In time they found each other and got married when Sheila became pregnant. Each of them brought a daughter into their marriage and then they had a daughter from their marriage. Throughout the troubling times they both worked as actors in their chosen profession, and both were successful. Money and material things were bought. Happiness came later when they were able to rid John of his demons, Sheila never give up on John. They were sometimes separated, but their love and common sense kept them together.

Sheila wrote this book, telling of their individual lives and then intertwining the last year of John's life. John Thaw developed esophageal cancer. A terrible cancer with not a good prognosis. He survived chemotherapy and radiation therapy, surgeries and various treatments. he died as he lived, simply, he just stopped breathing. Sheila goes on to tell us of her life without John. How could she survive? We all wonder at these times, but survive she has and has told us a wonderful story of John and their life together. She is a brilliant writer. I have not seen her acting, but imagine if it is as good as her writing it is also brilliant. Highly recommended. prisrob

Sheila Hancock OBE and John Thaw CBE were one of Britain's most successful acting couples. Sadly, John Thaw died of cancer like Sheila's first husband did so many years ago. As actors, they are both terrific actors. Hancock is still doing the West End theater and film and television. As the surviving spouse, she writes about her partnership with Thaw onstage and offstage. She writes about the love and partnership that these two extraordinary humans were allowed to have despite their hardships. This book is a wonderful testament to their love and their legacy.

Ms. Hancock's account of her marriage to actor John Thaw (Inspector Morse, Kavanagh, etc.) stands well above the typical show-biz memoir. She pulls no punches and relates the ebb and flow of each of their lives as well as their marriage - the highs and lows, the good and bad.

And there was plenty that was bad when Thaw's depression combined with growing alcoholism to try their marriage to its limits. Somehow it survived and one has to conclude it was largely due to Ms. Hancock's perseverance and genuine love for her husband. She stuck with him through the worst of it and helped him find the way out. There is satisfaction in learning that he did recover and that the last years of his life were among their happiest.

The book is organized in an effective way that follows each of them from birth as they enter and succeed on the British stage and later on film and television. Interspersed within these chapters are entries from Ms. Hancock's diary that were written during Thaw's valiant, but sadly losing battle with cancer. The final chapters trace her slow, painful efforts to cope with life on her own, culminating in a fascinating bit of detective work of her own as she searches for the truth about Thaw's mother, who abandoned her children when they were quite young. Ms. Hancock also gives us a wonderful inside view of British show business during the years when both she and Thaw were performers.

This is a sobering, no-nonsense account of two interesting lives spiced with both humor and pathos. It is uplifting and reminds us how different from our images the lives and personalities of actors and other public figures often are.

And if Sheila Hancock reads this, I would differ with her on one point -- John Thaw's work will not be forgotten any time soon.

For anyone who is a devoted John Thaw fan,(he was the BEST as far as I'm concerned), this is a book that you MUST read. Not only is it a tribute to his talent but it is a love letter from the love of his life. I brushed away many a tear while reading this wonderful but heartbreaking book.
Not only is this an intelligently written book by his wife, an accomplished actress herself, but she shares many photos of John's personal and professional life.
It was wonderful.

I bought this book because I and my wife so admired John Thaw the actor,
Morse, Cavanagh, Mr. Tom, A Year in Province etc. This not your typical
biography of a great actor it's much more. This is a moving story of a
women's deep love of a very flawed and troubled man. Her fears of losing him and her eventual loss of him hits home to anyone who has lost someone
that was the love of their life. She has written a deeply personel story,
and given words to thoughts we all have at the loss of one we so loved.
This book touched me deeply, it's what we all will face eventually as
the one who is dying or the one left behind. There is no gloss here
She portrays their life as it was and who they were. John Thaw was a
wonderful actor, but a greater man for beating his demons and over
comming all the blocks to happiness in his life.He could not have done it without her love and patience. He was a "Lucky Man",read it and weep.

This book celebrates the life of British actor John Thaw through the eyes of actress Shelia Hancock, who also happened to be his wife for 28 full years. I expected this book to be sad and greif stricken but there is only appropriate levels of sadness here. Hancock celebrates her husband's life with extraodinary candor and sensitivity. She leaves no stone unturned but in doing so is not muck raking nor commercialising her loss. She is every bit as brave and gutsily excising of her own greif and pain. I think Sheila really HAD to write this to tie the threads of her enormous loss together, John had put himself out on limb to be with her and she had done the same to keep him, on more than one occassion. In loosing him to cancer she had to find a way to explain the loss to herself and to John's public, he was a terribly adored actor and regarded as a national treasure. She explains everything beautifully here and I hope it helped her as much as I and others have enjoyed understanding them both in her work.

A famous and rightly very popular British actor, John Thaw. We know him so well as Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC, but how much do we know about the man himself? Thanks to Sheila Hancock's dual biography and autobiography "The Two of Us" we now know a great deal. Thankfully this book is utterly frank and there can be few secrets of their lives that have been hidden. I'm not sure I even knew that Sheila Hancock and John Thaw were husband and wife until reading this book. Sheila was born in 1933, a pre-war child, and John 9 years later during the war. John was born into a very poor family and the defining moment, which was to influence the rest of his life, was when his mother walked out on him and his brother when he was just 7 years old.

Sheila preceded John through the same London drama school (RADA) but it wasn't until about 10 years later that they met when cast together in a play. Sheila was about to lose her first husband to cancer. John and Sheila marry with each bringing a daughter to the union from their earlier marriages. Of course, as is often the way, they produce another daughter to give them a happy trio.

The story progresses through more than the average couple's share of real life dramas, from alcoholism, depression and cancer to separation. Sheila's love, inner strength, determination and courage is essentially what gets them through these troubled times to a happy reconciliation and final few years together before John's untimely death in 2002.

Between and within the biographical chapters are constant references to current affairs, political events, elections, wars, acts of terrorism and other bookmarks in time. Sheila does not hide her left wing opinions but tells little of John's political views.

The book ends with Sheila living on in desperate sorrow after John's death. She does try to find about more about John's late mother - whose funeral he did not attend - and what might have driven her to abandon her sons and leave such a mark on her beloved husband.

Whilst I loved this book I was frustrated by the large number of bit part players, maybe one every couple of pages, who came and went without really adding to the thread. Occasionally it was assumed that the reader would recall an earlier reference to one of these characters from many chapters earlier. In my case it was just too difficult. All in all this is a very interesting, open and readable biography of one of TV's most recognizable and well-loved contemporary characters

I knew of Sheila Hancock's work long before the introduction of "Morse" on American television. She is a fine stage and film actress whose talent won my respect in a piece of camp called "The Anniversary!" That she is also a remarkably fine writer came as a pleasant surprise. Her presentation, side-by-side time lines as well as contemporary "diary entries" for chapter headings is a very creative technique--and, for the most part, quite successful. One does get a measure of the man that WAS John Thaw; but, I came away with a greater sense of the woman who IS Sheila Hancock. The concluding pages are truly gut-wrenching! (My only complaint: the font used for the U.S. edition is hard on the eyes!)

I started this book because I have fond memories of John Thaw zooming round London in 'The Sweeney' and I dream of one day having a red Jaguar like the one he drove in 'Inspector Morse'. However, there was another side of John Thaw I knew nothing about, a man who struggled with depression and alcoholism....

Sheila Hancock, his wife, tells this beautiful warts and all love story as a tribute to the whole man. We read about the hell he put himself and those he loved through when he was drinking and about his recovering from alcoholism and how this rejuvenated his relationships.

Tragically, John Thaw died of cancer in 2002. The book is a tribute to the man as an actor and (and this was more important to me) a heartfelt love letter telling of the trials, tribulations and eventual triumph of a marriage which, while it might have been made in heaven, put both Mr Thaw and Ms Hancock through more than their share of hell.

This memoir written by his wife is a personal look at their lives together and as separate individuals. As a long time John Thaw fan who watched his work in movies and television, this book provided answers to some of the questions about John Thaw's earliest years as well as his life as he proceeded to develop as an accomplished actor in Great Britain.