Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart

 

Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart.

Published 10th October 2023 by Simon and Schuster.

Narrated by Patrick Stewart. Run time 18 hrs 50 mins.

From the cover:

The long-awaited memoir from iconic, beloved actor and living legend Sir Patrick Stewart.

From his acclaimed stage triumphs to his legendary onscreen work, Sir Patrick Stewart has captivated audiences around the world and across multiple generations in a career spanning six decades with his indelible command of stage and screen.

No other British working actor enjoys such career variety, universal respect and unending popularity, as witnessed through his seminal roles – whether as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek fame, Professor Charles Xavier of Marvel's X-Men hit film franchise, his more than forty years as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company and in such critically lauded roles for Hamlet and The Tempest on the West End and Broadway, his unforgettable one-man show adapted from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, or his comedic work in American Dad!, Ted, Extras and Blunt Talk, among many others.

Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, Making It So, a revealing portrait of a driven artist whose astonishing life – from his humble and hardscrabble beginnings in Yorkshire, to the dizzying heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim – proves a story as exuberant, definitive and enduring as the author himself.

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I think it is fair to say that Sir Patrick Stewart is a bit of a legend of stage and screen, and as a fan of an acting memoir, this is one I have long been looking forward to...

The audio book is enjoyably narrated by the man himself, even if his voice is a little less strong than in former days.

Stewart begins at the beginning, with his threadbare roots in a one-up-one-down in West Yorkshire, and then ambles through his acting career, and personal life, for a whopping run time of just shy of 19 hours - which is very impressive for a memoir of this kind.

He goes into all the nooks and crannies of his roles of stage and screen, which I found hugely entertaining, and, in some cases, very enlightening about his emotional state during some of the roles (particularly when it comes to his incredible performance on the stage as Macbeth, which I was very fortunate to see first hand in London's West End).

There are times when this feels like it is more directed at Stewart's trans-Atlantic fans, rather than his fellow Brits, which is faintly irksome on occasion - perhaps a UK edition would have been a good idea here, as I really did not need some of the explanations he finds necessary about British history/culture/settings? Fortunately, these moments become less frequent as the book progresses.

I really enjoyed this memoir. There are golden moments when he reveals the man behind to acting roles, his humour is infectious, and I became quite emotional when he talked about his complicated relationship with his family.

One of the best, and most detailed, acting memoirs I have had the pleasure to listen to.

Making it So is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

About the author:

From his acclaimed stage triumphs to his legendary onscreen work in the Star Trek and X-Men franchises, Sir Patrick Stewart has captivated audiences around the world and across multiple generations with his indelible command of stage and screen. Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, MAKING IT SO, a revealing portrait of an artist whose astonishing life―from his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England to the heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim―proves a story as exuberant, definitive, and enduring as the author himself.