The director of the Chiswick Book Festival, Torin Douglas, and the director of Chiswick House, Xanthe Arvanitakis, are delighted to announce that the speaker at this year’s Chiswick House Gala Evening will be Dame Eileen Atkins, award-winning star of stage and screen, and writer. A Chiswick resident for 40 years, she will talk to Torin Douglas about her acclaimed memoir Will She Do? Act One of a Life on Stage, in the Garden Pavilion on Thursday September 8th. Please save the date: tickets go on sale in July on our website.
The book is now out in paperback and Dame Eileen was recently interviewed by John Wilson on BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life.
With a career spanning eight decades, Dame Eileen Atkins is one of the most acclaimed British actors. She is a three-time Olivier Award-winner and has won Emmy and BAFTA Awards for her role in the television series Cranford. A familiar face on screen since making her television debut in 1959, she has starred in shows ranging from Doc Martin to The Crown, and her film roles have included The Dresser, Gosford Park, Cold Mountain and Paddington 2. She also co-created the long-running television series Upstairs Downstairs and The House of Elliot, and wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.