Making It So: A Memoir

Product Information

He also revealed that a book tour is in early development, where he expects to travel around promoting Making It So; more details are expected to become available closer to the book’s October release date. But the real reason I became devoted to Mr Dormand was that he was the man who introduced me to the works of William Shakespeare. One day, early in the term, he placed a copy of The Merchant of Venice on every desk. At the time, I did not know that Mr Dormand was also an amateur actor and director. Nor did I have any idea what the hell The Merchant of Venice was. Highly entertaining... You don't need to be a fan of Stewart the man of stage and screen to be as beguiled by the decades of professional acting that follow' - The Times It was Dormand who first introduced Stewart to Shakespeare. “I couldn’t understand a word,” he recalls, of being asked to read a monologue from The Merchant of Venice. “I couldn’t even pronounce some of the words.” But “I escaped. And my dream became more of a dream. Not just of having a different life. But, for the few minutes I had on stage, actually living it.” Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, Making It So, a revealing portrait of an artist whose astonishing life—from his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England, to the heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim—proves a story as exuberant, definitive, and enduring as the author himself.

Making It So | Book by Patrick Stewart, To Be Confirmed

Making It So, a Memoir,’ is such a delightful and beautifully-written account of an extraordinary thespian life, along with its sparkling anecdotes, that the best advice anyone can give potential readers is to just to grab a copy and immerse themselves in it. Like a super-glued ornament, it’s almost impossible to put down! For it’s a fascinating, funny, surprising and astonishingly honest account of a childhood passion that grew to almost legendary status – and from the mind of an exceptionally talented man, prepared to take chances in pursuit if his acting dreams, often against cautious advice. Because I didn’t do enough to protect my mother,” he says. “Because I didn’t respect my brothers enough, though I liked them very much.” He is even ashamed, he says, of skipping the entrance exam to grammar school, deciding instead to roam Mirfield’s hills alone. “I suspect that might just have been fear. Fear that I might pass, be elevated into this different world, which I couldn’t have handled, I know I couldn’t have handled it. Perhaps I did myself a big favour.” Spannend natürlich für die meisten zu lesen, wie er die Drehzeit von TNG erlebte, wie sehr er und andere unter Gene Roddenberry und den häufigen Autorenwechsel litt oder auch wie die Ernsthaftigkeit aus dem Theater ihm immer wieder gegen seine Serienkollegen aufbrachte (Zitat: "We are not here having fun!")Stylist Warren Alfie Baker; grooming Peter De Oliveira; photographer’s first assistant Jesse Belvin @gangganggenhis; second assistant Wacunza Clarke @dinbaedin; prop stylist Chloe Kirk @cb kirk; shot at Dust Studios ‘Read it out loud, you idiots!’

Patrick Stewart on childhood ‘On stage, I could escape’: Sir Patrick Stewart on childhood

I’ve got ideas. I’d like to do more comedy. Laughter is glorious’: with his wife Sunny Ozell. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty ImagesMaking It So is dedicated to Dormand and another teacher, Ruth Wynn Owen, once an understudy to Peggy Aschcroft and later a voice coach, who developed Stewart as an actor and is responsible for his received pronunciation. When I ask if he would have achieved what he has done without the confidence given to him by these adults, he says, “I think something would have happened, but it would have taken much longer.” I wonder if that underplays their impact. Had he not been advised to apply for a scholarship to drama school, he would not have gone – there was no other money. “Here I was, a secondary school boy, getting everything paid for,” he says. “My schooling, the goods I needed, tights, ballet shoes, work clothes, scripts, all of that. [The scholarship] paid for everything.” His time at drama school went well, but still Stewart didn’t walk into a job. At repertory auditions early in his career he would turn up in a wig, then whip it off halfway through to reveal his bald head, hoping to impress on directors that if they hired him into their company they were getting two actors for the price of one. (It worked, eventually.)

Making It So: A Memoir: Stewart, Patrick: 9781982167738

My brothers and I whatsapped each other during Picard as we are all now older adults in our late 40s and 50s and we would go, holy moly did you see what Picard just did, and it was an amazing way for us to keep in touch with each other over a shared love of scifi. In his memoir, Stewart describes his relationship with his children as “a work in progress”. When I ask how things are now he looks briefly rattled and casts his eyes downwards. “It’s very sad,” he says. “I love my children. But our relationships, they haven’t worked out.” Stewart maintains strong links to his grandchildren – less so their parents, though in the book he seems on good terms with his son, Daniel, who followed him into acting. He goes on, “It will always be a place of sadness in my life.” We did, and we were dreadful. None of us could make sense of what we were reading, what the story was, or what most of the words meant. “Adversary”? “Void”? “Dram”? “Obdurate”? Nobody in our world used words like that.

If I do have a quibble, it is an odd one for a Star Trek fan. I really wanted more about the time BEFORE TNG. I really wanted to read more about the RSC, the films and all the other productions. It’s not a get-out,” he says. “But an understanding, yes.” Then he goes on, “I always used to feel that my father and his violence is what had the biggest impact on my life. There have been times when I have been violent. Rarely to other people, and never to my children. But I can get angry. And it comes from my father.” I have followed his career since from a respectful distance, and when I learned he was writing his memoir, I was over the moon with excitement. Mr Dormand was tall and handsome, with an informal manner that put us kids at ease. He wasn’t too informal with us – if he caught a pupil glazing over with an inattentive stare, he wouldn’t hesitate to nail this pupil in the head with a piece of chalk. We actually loved him for this. If you somehow managed to think fast enough to catch the piece of chalk he’d aimed your way, you received a “Bravo!” from Mr Dormand and a round of applause from the rest of the class.