Alfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father's shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century?
As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of himself, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films. Grace Kelly, Carey Grant and James Stewart despair of his detached directing style, and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endures cuts and bruises from a real-life fearsome flock of birds.
Alfred Hitchcock wrests the director's chair back from the master of control and discovers what lurks just out of sight, in the corner of the shot.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9780099287667
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 216 g
Dimensions: 197 x 129 x 17 mm
Superb, insightful short life... Deft and moving - Bee Wilson, The Guardian
Irresistible - Louise Jury, The Independent
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
This is an elegantly spare and hugely readable book – which sends you straight back to the films - Olivia Cole, GQ
An accessible and efficient primer to [Hitchcock’s] life and work - Peter Murphy, Irish Times
A sound and highly readable introduction - Kevin Jackson, Literary Review
Ackroyd…lucidly evokes the textures of Hitchcock’s eccentric life and blends these with a confident examination of the major films in Hitchcock’s remarkable output - Brendan Daly, Sunday Business Post
An engaging introduction and intriguing invitation to revisit the films - Francine Stock, Prospect
This biography is erudite and very readable. It is a great story. A must for anyone studying Hitchcock's films or for anyone who is a fan of those films. His whole life and works are recorded here. It is... More
Alfred Hitchcock was a superb and prolific film director. He made more than 60 films and while not all of them reached the heights of Vertigo (ha!), Rear Window and North by Northwest, even his lesser works showed... More
I don't usually write reviews, but as I was looking for a good overview of Alfred Hitchcock, and knew Peter Ackroyd had an excellent reputation as a biographer, it occurred to me that others my have the same... More
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?