Book Title:  In the Frame:  My Life in Words and Pictures
Author: Helen Mirren
Publishing Company: Atria Books
Year:  2008
# of Pages: 272
ISBN-13:  978-14165-6760-8 
ISBN-10:  1-415-6760-7
$35.00 

5 Stars

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

Beautiful, brilliant Helen Mirren has written an autobiography that should be required reading for all celebrities who plan on one day taking on such a project.  This is not only an entertaining, enlightening read, but also an example of how such a book should be written.

Perhaps it is because of Mirren's early training:  "My mother would check 'thank you' letters to make sure the word 'I' only appeared once, and she'd cross out all references to myself."  Rather than provide an in-depth self-analysis, Mirren places herself in the context of her family, her career, and her times.  The reader receives far more than just a look at an individual.  This is a study of a particular point in history and an actress making her way through it.

She tells of her Russian ancestry, with a grandfather who was a member of the Czarist army.  When he left Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, he left family behind, and some of their letters to him are included in the book.  Mirren writes candidly of her parents, her brother and sister, and the affection within the family rings through the pages. 

Mirren is meticulous about giving credit-she even gives credit to a wig, writing of "pure, unbleached, very long, fine white-blonde hair" made into a wig she wore when playing Titania, the Fairy Queen, in A Midsummer Night's Dream.  "[I]t made my performance."  Writing of her early success, she acknowledges the importance of her mother urging her daughters to be able to support themselves.  She also credits a special teacher.  "I wonder if I would ever have managed to become an actress if it had not been for Mrs. Welding.  In the past of many artists, especially ones coming from an unexpected background, you will find a very fine teacher..."  Mrs. Welding told young Helen about the National Youth Theatre.  Traveling with her dad to London for an audition, Mirren went without telling anyone at school, so fearful she was of rejection.  She qualified for the program.  She writes of the excitement of playing Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and wearing a costume that had once been worn by Diana Rigg.   

Mirren writes of her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, including a difficult run as Lady Macbeth opposite Nicol Williamson.  (Later, their relationship improved while working together on the film Excalibur).   She was troubled by the heavily designed stage and wrote a letter to the Guardian (which is included in the book) bemoaning the subsidized RSC's emphasis on set design and costume issues, arguing for more simplicity in the theatre.  The RSC, always in a battle to hold on to that subsidy, was not amused. 

Mirren writes candidly of her romantic relationships (speaking of one man who, "like all the men I have had a proper relationship with left me a better person than he found me.").  She tells of her first meeting with her husband, director Taylor Hackford; it did not go well, with him arriving late.  After waiting at length and feeling "insulted," she walked to the door to leave and "Taylor walks in-and into the next twenty years of my life, and counting." 

There is a moving account of her experience working in New York on September 11, 2001.  "I had always wondered, as a post-Second World War child whose parents had experienced the Blitz, what the ethnically diverse and culturally conflicted people of the great American cities would do if they had bombs dropped on them the way Londoners and the people of Coventry did.  . . . They came together-Puerto Ricans, Ukrainians, Blacks, Jews, Indians, Italians, Chinese and all the great mix that is New York-and became one homogenous city in their grief, rising to the challenge." 

The book concludes with the story of Mirren's "Amazing Year" of portraying Elizabeth I for HBO and Elizabeth II in the film The Queen, which netted her the Academy Award for Best Actress.  Mirren writes of her nervousness in playing the role of a living person-and the Queen, at that-then identifies a turning point:  "I suddenly felt liberated by the idea that all I was doing was a portrait of her, the way a painter might. . . .  So I also looked at paintings of the present queen, to see what different artists may have seen in her.  I thought that I did not have to do the most perfect impersonation, just my personal impression, fed by my own perceptions, as a painter does.  As the proud owner of a Welsh corgi, I also enjoyed Mirren's statement:  "I must confess I loved the corgis."

The book is filled with beautiful photographs that, scrapbook like, take the reader through Mirren's life and career.  This is a book where every caption must be read, for often a delightful story is related there that will not be found in the text. 

Anyone watching Mirren's work sees a beautiful, intelligent, strong, but still humorous woman.  It is a delight to find that image rings true in her autobiography as well.