Shark Infested Waters: Tales Of An Actors’ Agent
£4.70
Michael Whitehall contrasts the glamorous image of theatrical life with the mundane realities of the business, while passing on some startling trade secrets along the way.
A laconic raconteur of refreshingly unstar-struck theatrical anecdotes, Whitehall deftly sketches the social comedy of his eccentric background: growing up in suburban London in the 1950s, his schooldays at Ampleforth and his subsequent adventures as a prep schoolmaster – worthy of Evelyn Waugh himself – before becoming an actors’ agent.
Shark-Infested Waters is a charming, funny and piquant view of a world that continues to fascinate.
Praise for Shark Infested Waters:
“The funniest show-business memoir I’ve read since David Niven’s The Moon’s a Balloon.” – Nigel Havers
“One of the year’s funniest memoirs.” – Daily Express
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by Mrs. P. B. Grady
Good read and it was easy to digest whilst on holiday. Nice to have some additional background information on the industry.
by Joyce Symington
Thought I would like to read this book as the others have been excellent. MW is a waspish commentator on all aspects of life, not to everyone’s taste perhaps, but very interesting!! Well worth it.
by Customer
Such a fantastic book. Funny, well-written and had me in tears of laughter at some points.
If you like his podcast you’ll love this.
by Ali
A great read! Michael should write more books.
by PDD
I am a bit of a fan of Jack and his Dad. I bought this as a light and easy read read. Not brilliant but easy to read and amusing. Some of the anecdotes were really good.
by constantreader
I liked this a good deal. Funny. Whitehall is honest and observant about the dramatis personae of every act of his life. Light of touch and not too heavy on the name dropping, but with plenty of the famous to be going on with, this book nevertheless avoids the ‘oh this old thing’ school of memoir – the people Michael Whitehall mixed and worked with are well known, but it comes across clearly that that was the job, and we all meet people through our work. He is clear sighted, not blinded by the limelight and I enjoyed all of it.
by G C.
I really enjoyed this book. It was entertaining to read how many false starts the author had in settling on a career but the story also showed that you have to have a certain personality to be a successful agent and bags of confidence. There must be many more stories this author could tell, but probably never would! He’s probably one of the best ‘after dinner’ speakers or dinner guest one could have.
by Amazon Customer
A great book. My mother was a theatrical agent for 40 years and had to deal with fragile egos,but came out the other end smiling. The book is full of very funny stories.
His follow up,’Backing into the Spotlight’ is also great fun