Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries

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Paton makes these uncomfortable attempts at witticisms in parentheses on almost every other page, definitely several times in each chapter. Despite having mixed feelings about the way this book has been published, I found Rickman’s diaries a really interesting and enlightening read. I love Rickman’s work but this is read by a person who mispronounces so many words, and whose tone does not capture Rickman’s brilliance at all. I also found it odd that this book has an editor (who wrote the introduction), but no real attempt is made to explain what was edited and why. Rickman] offers a fascinating guide to life as an actor and what it's like to be at the centre of fame.

Maureen Paton explores the actor's closely guarded private life and goes beyond the public persona to find the real Rickman, the working class boy. On paper, Alan's writing reveals a reflective, open and down-to-earth person who was a true fan of the industry he worked in.Sean Mathias, who directed him and Helen Mirren in Anthony and Cleopatra, is “a big pile of Kleenex”; the playwright David Hare is “more self-involved than any actor I have ever met”. I held on a bit longer, but it was also hard to decipher comments about people who are referred to simply by their initials, where's the fun in that?

After attending the premiere for The Sorcerer's Stone, Rickman wrote that “the film should only be seen on a big screen," adding that “it acquires a scale and depth that matches the hideous score by John Williams. However, we came away unclear as to whether or not Alan Rickman actually intended these diary entries to be published, and to be honest, we had to ask ourselves the question of why we would want to read someone else's diary.This volume is a ‘distillation of more than a million words’, so what were the principles of selection? The book is a relentlessly waspish grumble about fellow actors delivering disappointing performances . Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in 1988’s Die Hard: ‘I had never seen a suaver, funnier screen villain and I still haven’t. Alan Rickman was at the peak of his career when he died from cancer… he was destined for true greatness but leaves behind an eclectic body of film work… arch villain Hans Gruber, sheriff of Nottingham and of course Severus Snape or romantic ghost, unwilling ‘alien’ or straying husband… he truly entertained us with his talent! Rickman didn’t suffer fools and his intelligence keeps chafing against his fellow professionals – their self-absorption, their vanity, their unresponsiveness.