Making It So: A Memoir

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Thanks for reading, and if you have a favourite Jean-Luc Picard GIF be sure to share in the comments! 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.”

Making It So: A Memoir – Special Edition with Postcard

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 So if you are on the fence about reading or, better yet, making the 18+ hour commitment to listening to this memoir I can only hope this silly review helps you decide which side to come down on. 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.” While I knew about much of his major stage work, I enjoyed following his journey from local groups as a young teen to some of the world's most prominent theaters and productions. He also spends a good deal of time on his early home life and family, and reveals his later struggles balancing the punishing work schedules and his marriages and children. He is open and honest about his triumphs and his failures. Full disclosure: I am a HUGE Star Trek fan. I can remember watching one episode of the TOS when it first came out, and then watching reruns as a teenager after school.

Table of Contents

To Stewart the discovery was a breakthrough. I ask now if becoming aware of his father’s illness made it easier to comprehend, if not excuse, his actions? 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.” 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.” This disclaimer aside, Stewart is a fabulous raconteur and I found the book delightful, neither overly triumphalist or self-deprecating, with moments of true humour and pathos along the way. All right,” said Mr D, “start reading.” We all bent our heads over the strange-looking columns of print and started reading. Silently. A moment passed before Mr D erupted: “Not to yourselves, you idiots, out loud! This is a play, it’s action, it’s drama, it’s life. Start again.”

Making It So by Patrick Stewart | Waterstones

Much of the first two thirds is dedicated to his formative years living in very humble, and at times harrowing circumstances, in northern England as well as starting out as a classically trained Shakespearean actor in the UK and beyond, so don't let the title mislead you into thinking this is a book with a lot of emphasis on his years working on Star Trek: The Next Generation in California. 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.It finally came out, and I was fortunate enough to experience it as an audiobook read by the author. 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. Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, Making It So, a revealing portrait of a driven artist whose astonishing life - from his humble and hardscrabble beginnings in Yorkshire, to the dizzying heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim - proves a story as exuberant, definitive and enduring as the author himself.

Book by Patrick Stewart | Official Publisher Making It So | Book by Patrick Stewart | Official Publisher

I tell Stewart that I am surprised he has been able to locate the good in his father, to consider him a positive figure, and we wonder together what that might have taken. “I’ve already mentioned the ‘T’ word,” he says, meaning therapy. “It was a friend who introduced me to the idea of therapeutic sessions and they’ve been a part of my life ever since. Invaluably and particularly since I’ve come to live in the United States, where if you don’t have a therapist you’re weird.” From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: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. Even now, Stewart’s age hasn’t quite caught up with some of the walk-on parts he played as a novice – an 85-year-old butler, or someone’s ancient American father in an obscure Shaw play. “I was dreadful and everyone knew it,” he recalls of the latter. He describes some of these early humiliations with the self-deprecating wisdom only 60 years’ hindsight can bestow.

Patrick Stewart ‘Making it So: A Memoir’ | Royal Tickets | Patrick Stewart ‘Making it So: A Memoir’ | Royal

The book paints the picture of a man genuinely dedicated to the Arts, in particular to his career as a Shakespearean actor. It is clear that he finds true joy and passion in embodying complex characters and that his whole life experience is coloured by his gentle sensibilities. He is rather serious by nature and finds true meaning in works of art and performances by actors he admires, which naturally leads him to imbue meaning in everything he does. 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. I also wasn't as thrilled with the episodic recaps of TNG. I enjoyed his takes on the episodes on later viewing, but more on the actual production would have been nice. He glosses over the very real conflicts with Roddenberry, the mess with Gates McFadden and the clear inability to connect as an actor with Diana Muldaur. 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.

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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!’ The subject that most captivated me was English literature. In my second year at the Mirfield Secondary Modern School, I was assigned to the Eng-lit class of Cecil Dormand, who was also my form master. He was to have a transformational impact on my life. I would have liked to have said to him, ‘Dad, there were so many aspects of you and your life that have taken me by the hand and led me on my way through adulthood and into old age. You are, in many respects, an example to me. And in other respects, you are still a bad man.’” Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, Making It So, a revealing portrait of a driven artist whose astonishing life – from his humble and hardscrabble beginnings in Yorkshire, to the dizzying heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim – proves a story as exuberant, definitive and enduring as the author himself.