The Centre of the Bed: An Autobiography by Joan Bakewell - ISBN: 9780340823118
Paperback
Frank memoir of life, love, and Britain’s changing roles.

The Centre of the Bed: An Autobiography

An Autobiography

$39.35

  • Paperback

    336 pages

  • Release Date

    15 July 2004

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Summary

The story of Joan Bakewell’s life and times spans the Blitz in Manchester, Cambridge during the glittering era of Michael Frayn, Peter Hall, Jonathan Miller et al, London at its most exciting in the swinging sixties and the world of the media and the arts from the 60s to the present.

As she reflects on the choices she has made and the influences that shaped her, she confronts painful childhood memories of her mother’s behaviour and describes both her affair with Harold Pinter and her …

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780340823118
ISBN-10:0340823119
Author:Joan Bakewell
Publisher:Hodder & Stoughton
Imprint:Sceptre
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:336
Release Date:15 July 2004
Weight:253g
Dimensions:199mm x 139mm x 23mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

‘Wise and wry’

Mesmerising - Caroline Gascoigne, Books of the Year, Sunday Time

A beautifully written, fascinating glimpse into the childhood and personal life of the woman who was one of the pioneers for equality for women in the BBC. - Lesley Pearse, Daily Mail

She has the rare ability to observe her life from a semi-detached position and to lace her own story into the social history of our times - Michael Cockerell, Daily Mail

Few can match Bakewell for the qualities that abound in her book: class and composure and a deeply unfashionable concern for more than her own career. - Lesley White, Sunday Times

Wise and wry - The Times

Bakewell’s level-headed discussion of her ambivalent response to the tag (the ‘thinking man’s crumpet’) makes fascinating reading…as does her calm but moving account of her lengthy affair with Harold Pinter. - The Sunday Times

Like the devil in the Rolling Stones’ song, Joan Bakewell was everywhere at every stage: reporting on the Cuban missile crisis, interviewing Allen Ginsberg and Vaclav Havel, taking chunks out of the Berlin Wall when it fell…draped in the kaftan of Sixties sophistication…her evocations of grief [are] powerful and honest. - Independent on Sunday

vividly believable and tinged with sadness…a tender, unshowy memoir - Casilda Grigg, The Telegraph

About The Author

Joan Bakewell

Joan Bakewell was born in Stockport in 1933, the daughter of an engineer, granddaughter of working-class artisans. She was the first in her family to go to university and only the second woman from her grammar school to attend Cambridge, where her circle included Frederick Raphael, Peter Hall, Michael Frayn, Mark Boxer and Jonathan Miller. Her long and illustrious career in broadcasting has included being the only woman presenter on BBC TV’s Late Night Line Up, being Arts Correspondent for Newsnight, Chair of the BFI, and presenting series such as Heart of the Matter and My Generation.

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