Biography: Sheila Hancock, one of Britain's most highly regarded and popular actors, received a Damehood for services to drama and charity in 2021. During The Sweeney, John began to make a bit of money, and at that time we went to Rome, and we went to Gucci, and we bought this jacket for him.

As recently as 2016, not only was she on stage at the Southwark Playhouse every night for weeks, appearing in Grey Gardens, a musical about Jackie Kennedy’s eccentric relatives; she also played a grieving widow in Edie, a film for which she was required to climb remote Suilven in the Scottish Highlands. I would have preferred more about her as a person and her life and career, but maybe she’s done that in her previous books.It’s 20 years now since Hancock’s second husband, John Thaw, died of oesophageal cancer – the same disease that took her first, the actor Alec Ross, 31 years earlier – and I wonder if the isolation born of Covid-19 painfully reinforced the state of widowhood.

When Sheila went to the hospital the next day her ninety three Aunt Billie quietly had let go of her grasp on 18th December. I really enjoyed Sheila Hancock’s latest book - this lady us such an inspiration for me, I recently saw her talk as part of Falmouth’s book festival with a friend. Following the death of her husband, John Thaw, she wrote a memoir of their marriage, The Two of Us, which was a number one bestseller and won the British Book Award for Author of the Year. I find it interesting to see Hancock's point of view on a great many recent events from a perspective somewhere less Americentric. Some topics I didn't know, like her late husband actor John Thaw, her daughters, her bolt-hole home in France, and many luvvie friends (her words) mentioned in lively anecdotes.

She has suffered loss and sadness, and currently has rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, but doesn't stop her maintaining a firm grip on life and learning. Today is particularly piercing on this score, the death of Denis Waterman, Thaw’s co-star in The Sweeney, having just been announced. Following the death of her husband, John Thaw, she wrote a memoir of their marriage, The Two of Us , which was a no. There are eight grandchildren, all of whom, at various points during the lockdown, stood on Hancock’s patio and merrily “shouted” at her. When Sheila Hancock first sat down to begin writing her new memoir in 2016, the volume in question was intended to be an inspiriting book on the subject of old age.

Funny, feisty, honest, she makes for brilliant company as she talks about her life as a daughter, a sister, a mother, a widow, an actor, a friend and looks at a world so different from the wartime world of her childhood. Reading about the lockdowns brought back a lot of memories as well as anger and a sense that we need to change.Thaw was much more like Jack Regan than Inspector Morse, she tells me, and for this reason she has occasionally plucked up the courage to watch The Sweeney since his death. As Billie was in a ward of her own Sheila sat with Billie day and night singing to her and saying a childhood prayer to her, one that I truly loved, that was one my favourite parts in the book for loving the prayer. I right away looked up the movie "Edie" which gutted me in the first few minutes (if you watch nothing else see Edie's confrontation with her midlife daughter) and what came after was awfully sweet.

Whilst I’m sure she’s a very nice lady to be commended for her many and varied accomplishments including mountain climbing aged 83, raising 3 daughters whilst maintaining a career and a marriage to an alcoholic but the incessant opinionated ranting and disparaging remarks about public figures she doesn’t approve of or like is tiresome. She had weathered and even thrived in widowhood, taking on acting roles that would have been demanding for a woman half her age. She reflects on her past, how she got where she is However, what stands out is her commitment to being a positive influence in the world from involvement in arts programs in schools, to workers rights and human rights. Following the death of her husband, John Thaw, she wrote a memoir of their marriage, The Two of Us, which was a no.Witnessing and then accepting the decay of your physical self as you age is a brutal reality and it's captured well in Sheila's diaries. View image in fullscreen Hancock with daughters (l-r) Melanie, Joanna and Abigail at the memorial service for John Thaw at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 2002. Its pages would, she hoped, describe fulfilment and contentment as well as how best to keep your aching back straight (believe me when I tell you that her spine would induce awe in even the sternest pilates teacher).