Overview

Alfred Hitchcock rigorously controlled his public image, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring out all others. In this gripping short biography, Peter Ackroyd wrests the director’s chair back from the master of control to reveal a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashed a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances throughout Hitchcock’s story, just as the director did in his own films: Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, James Stewart and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren, who endures cuts and bruises from a fearsome flock of real birds. Perceptive and intelligent, Alfred Hitchcock is a fascinating look at one of the most revered directors of the twentieth century.

Full Product Details

9780525434795

Table of Contents

Reviews

A smart, fluent overview of the director's life and art, and the mysterious dynamic between the two. --The New York Times A masterful book on the Master of Suspense: like all good movies, it's over too soon. --The Seattle Times Superb, insightful. . . . [A] deft and moving biography. --The Guardian A character portrait . . . guided by a novelist's skills of characterization and texture. --The New York Times Book Review Ackroyd masters the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock. --Vanity Fair Irresistible. --The Independent (London) Immaculate and phenomenally readable. --The Buffalo News As packed with anecdotes as an after-dinner speech. Everyone, it seems, had a story about Hitch, most of them ghoulish. --Newsweek Well written . . . and unusually well attuned to the religious element [of Hitchcock's movies]. --Financial Times -A smart, fluent overview of the director's life and art, and the mysterious dynamic between the two.- --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times -Ackroyd's volume is slim but insightful . . . guided by a novelist's skills of characterization and texture . . . Ackroyd is thrillingly alive to what he calls 'the true music' of Hitchcock, with his Mozartian arias of pure flight and pursuit.- --Tom Shone, The New York Times Book Review -A masterful book on the Master of Suspense.---Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times -Immaculate and phenomenally readable . . . close to a minor classic of its kind.- -Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News -A superb, insightful short life . . . Ackroyd's deft and moving biography proves that there is a fresh story to be told, and that he is the person to do it. - --Bee Wilson, The Guardian -If there is any writer capable of imaginative sympathy with Hitchcock, it is Ackroyd.- --Duncan White, The Telegraph -An elegant and hugely enjoyable read.- --Alexander Larman, Sunday Express -A nutritious, compact and superb critical biography.- --Roger Lewis, Daily Mail -Shelves of serious biographies have been written on Alfred Hitchcock, but perhaps none as pleasurable as Peter Ackroyd's.- --Kate Muir, The Times (London)

-A smart, fluent overview of the director's life and art, and the mysterious dynamic between the two.- --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times -Ackroyd's volume is slim but insightful . . . guided by a novelist's skills of characterization and texture . . . Ackroyd is thrillingly alive to what he calls 'the true music' of Hitchcock, with his Mozartian arias of pure flight and pursuit.- --Tom Shone, The New York Times Book Review -A masterful book on the Master of Suspense.---Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times -Immaculate and phenomenally readable . . . close to a minor classic of its kind.- -Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News -A superb, insightful short life . . . Ackroyd's deft and moving biography proves that there is a fresh story to be told, and that he is the person to do it. - --Bee Wilson, The Guardian -If there is any writer capable of imaginative sympathy with Hitchcock, it is Ackroyd.- --Duncan White, The Telegraph -An elegant and hugely enjoyable read.- --Alexander Larman, Sunday Express -A nutritious, compact and superb critical biography.- --Roger Lewis, Daily Mail -Shelves of serious biographies have been written on Alfred Hitchcock, but perhaps none as pleasurable as Peter Ackroyd's.- --Kate Muir, The Times (London)

A smart, fluent overview of the director's life and art, and the mysterious dynamic between the two. --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Ackroyd's volume is slim but insightful . . . guided by a novelist's skills of characterization and texture . . . Ackroyd is thrillingly alive to what he calls 'the true music' of Hitchcock, with his Mozartian arias of pure flight and pursuit. --Tom Shone, The New York Times Book Review A masterful book on the Master of Suspense. --Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times Immaculate and phenomenally readable . . . close to a minor classic of its kind. -Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News A superb, insightful short life . . . Ackroyd's deft and moving biography proves that there is a fresh story to be told, and that he is the person to do it. --Bee Wilson, The Guardian If there is any writer capable of imaginative sympathy with Hitchcock, it is Ackroyd. --Duncan White, The Telegraph An elegant and hugely enjoyable read. --Alexander Larman, Sunday Express A nutritious, compact and superb critical biography. --Roger Lewis, Daily Mail Shelves of serious biographies have been written on Alfred Hitchcock, but perhaps none as pleasurable as Peter Ackroyd's. --Kate Muir, The Times (London)

Author Information

Peter Ackroyd is the author of London: The Biography, Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, Shakespeare: The Biography, and Thames: The Biography. He has written acclaimed biographies of T. S. Eliot, Charles Dickens, William Blake, Sir Thomas More, and Charlie Chaplin, as well as several successful novels. He has won the Whitbread Book Award for Biography, the Royal Society of Literature’s William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the South Bank Award for Literature. His most recent book was a brief biography of Wilkie Collins.

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