Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 27 November 2008.
This is a collection of some of Maureen Lipman's best writing, taken from previous books along with new stories and anecdotes. Some of the old stories are reworked here and there is plenty of new writing to keep the book fresh. It's a great book for dipping in to full of happy memories as well as sad told in the down to earth style we have some to expect from one of the nations favourite actresses.
Life the Lipman way is always unexpected, and the hilarious and witty way in which she recalls her adventures and misadventures has made her a bestselling author and national treasure. Past-it Notes is the ultimate Maureen Lipman collection, drawing on choice material from her six previous books (re-visited and re-worked) laced with a heady dose of extremely funny new autobiographical material. Past-it Notes is packed with beguiling showbiz anecdotes, wonderful stories, eccentric characters, bizarre situations and memorable encounters recalled and recorded with gusto and relish, including affectionate recollections of her late husband, the playwright Jack Rosenthal, and of her mother and Muse, the inimitable Zelma. From entertaining the neighbours at the age of four with impressions of Alma Cogan to entertaining the nation on TV, from struggling with her laptop to film-roles and award-winning stage triumphs as diverse as The Pianist and Oklahoma and not forgetting her iconic creation Beattie, star of thirty five British Telecom commercials Maureen combines stories of her whirlwind professional life, and confessions of the chaos that often threatens to engulf her personal life, with a style and wit that is utterly and uniquely her own.