Playing Under the Piano (Paperback)

A writer of considerable urbanity and wit. Gary Oldman says it is 'beautiful, touching and funny'. I agree. - Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph

Comedy gold... I don't remember when I last read a book that gave me so many laughs... A riveting account of what it takes to be an actor - Christina Patterson, Sunday Times

Tremendously entertaining... if collapsing into laughter is what you need at the moment, then Playing Under the Piano could be the book for you... a delicious and endearing mode somewhere between utmost sincerity and utter bafflement - Rachel Cooke, Observer

A great read - Graham Norton

An enormously entertaining memoir - Daily Mirror

The tone of Hugh Bonneville's autobiography is very much like the man himself - warm, charming, funny and thoroughly embraceable... There is a refreshing lack of narcissism in a narrative poised between detached observation and amused self-reflection... An enormously entertaining memoir - Neil Norman, Daily Express

Really enjoyed this. Wonderfully funny and utterly charming - just like the man himself! - Jack Whitehall

By turns funny, touching, revealing - full of insights, delights and surprises. I couldn't have enjoyed it more - Gyles Brandreth

A gorgeous book. Warm, friendly, funny and sometimes surprisingly emotional. Very like Hugh himself - Richard Curtis

When other books have been forgotten, this one will be remembered. Hugh Bonneville's considerable talent for writing is on display page after page. Beautiful. Touching. And funny. - Gary Oldman

Charming, joyous and entertaining, just like Hugh. - Griff Rhys Jones

A collection of stories painting a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen - Yorkshire Post

Bonneville is entertaining, with a clear-eyed view of his trade... Reliving it all so far with light and shade, bite and bonhomie, as a memoirist Bonneville passes the audition with flying colours - Mail on Sunday

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love Hugh even more - Woman & Home

Bonneville tells of his life with appealing modesty... he gives us plenty of backstage gossip - Reader's Digest

Witty and moving - Country Living

The Downton star proves himself to be a polished raconteur - Books of the Year, Daily Telegraph

A beautifully poised memoir, both insightful and - occasionally - laugh-out-loud funny, with the gift for comic timing he reveals on screen and a sharp eye for detail... warmly engrossing - Books of the Year, The Times

Bonneville's affable screen presence richly translated onto the page through anecdotes and adventures... there are many howling laughs in this frequently entertaining memoir - RTE Guide

Playing Under the Piano made me hoot - Ben Macintyre, Books of the Year, The Times

Though a funny raconteur, Bonneville also writes poignantly about his father's dementia and of his mother, whose life in the secret service only emerged after her death - The Gloss

Gloriously funny... Between the laugh-out-loud anecdotes are revealing stories of the less glamorous side of an actor's life, as well as poignant family memories - Jane Shilling, Daily Mail