A product of the Georgian provincial theatre, Cook became a London star, renowned for his Richard III and famous in Britain and America, not only for his extraordinary power as an actor but also for the wildness and irregularity of his private life. It is often said that, like Kean, he ruined his career by drink but the facts are more complex. He may not have quite matched Kean’s genius but, whatever his failings, his was the more sympathetic personality, as this exploration of the actor at work and of the private man reveals.

Paperback; 272 pp, 12 ill., ISBN 085430 031 7

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