One Thing and Another

‘Do you sometimes think that you might wish that you were a national treasure, like Alan Bennett?’‘I’m rather glad I’m not. I’m quite pleased to be what I think I am, which is a sort of national liability.’Over the course of seven decades, Jonathan Miller has been at the forefront of developments in theatre, opera, comedy, philosophy and scientific debate. This new collection brings together the very best of his acerbic writing. In keeping with Miller’s grasshopper mind, One Thing and Another leaps from discussions of human behaviour, atheism, satire, cinema and television, to analysis of the work of M. R. James, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens and Truman Capote, by way of reflections on directing Shakespeare, Chekhov, Olivier and opera. A celebrated conversationalist, the book also features a selection of key interviews focusing on his working method. Jonathan Miller is internationally celebrated as one of the last great public intellectuals. Read One Thing and Another to find out why.

“"Jonathan Miller changed my life so often and made it so much better that were he to become a religion I should immediately renounce apostasy and join." -- Eric Idle " One Thing and Another is indeed a further fascinating ramble round subjects that intrigue Dr Miller. They range from getting stuck in rehearsal to Erving Goffman's revelations as non-verbal communication. Compelling stuff." -- Max Stafford-Clark "Anything written or spoken by Jonathan Miller is to be treasured. This stunning collection is a must. The famous keen intelligence, the scholarship, the laugh out-loud wit and humor, all in Miller's incomparable prose make this work a necessary addition to your library. In fact, considering its range, this book could just about be your library. Make a friend's year. Pick up two copies." -- Dick Cavett”

Jonathan Miller changed my life so often and made it so much better that were he to become a religion I should immediately renounce apostasy and join. Eric Idle
One Thing and Another is indeed a further fascinating ramble round subjects that intrigue Dr Miller. They range from getting stuck in rehearsal to Erving Goffman’s revelations as non-verbal communication. Compelling stuff. Max Stafford-Clark
Anything written or spoken by Jonathan Miller is to be treasured. This stunning collection is a must. The famous keen intelligence, the scholarship, the laugh out-loud wit and humor, all in Miller’s incomparable prose make this work a necessary addition to your library. In fact, considering its range, this book could just about be your library. Make a friend’s year. Pick up two copies. Dick Cavett

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, CBE is a British theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist, and medical doctor. He was an associate director at the National Theatre and Artistic Director of the Old Vic Theatre. As writer/presenter of more than a dozen BBC documentaries, he has become a well-known television personality and familiar public intellectual in both Britain and the United States.Ian Greaves is an archivist, whose work includes The Art of Invective: Selected Non-Fiction 1953–1994 by the playwright Dennis Potter. An occasional broadcaster, Ian has also devised documentaries for Radio 4 and is a contributor to BFI Screenonline.

The book guides the reader through Miller's revue writing in the 1950s and 1960s, to his emergence as a public intellectual and as enfant terrible of the international opera circuit from the mid-70s to the present day. Containing previously lost and undiscovered material, with extensive meditations on the arts, philosophy, medicine, technology, opera, Shakespeare and the philosophy of science, this is a fully-authorized comprehensive collection of Miller's best-known writing from one of the world's leading public intellectuals.

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