John G: The Authorized Biography of John Gielgud – Sheridan Morley Rechtstreeks Van De Fabrikant

John Gielgud has no place in the history of twentieth-century British theatre for the simple reason that he was that history. In a career spanning almost eighty years on stage and screen, radio and television, he effectively reinvented Shakespeare for the modern stage; he was the first great Hamlet of our time; with his brother Val he virtually created the BBC radio drama; decades before the founding of the National Theatre or the RSC, he pioneered the idea of a resident classical company in the West End. H…