In Old Rage, one of Britain's best-loved actors opens up about her tenth decade. Funny, feisty, honest, she makes for brilliant company as she talks about her life and takes an uncompromising look at a world so different from the one of her wartime childhood. And yet – despite age, despite rage – she finds there are always reasons for joy. Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I confess I’ve not read any of her three previous efforts but, after digesting this diarised account of her latter years, I can certainly handle a bigger dose of Sheila. 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. The much-loved actor candidly shares the fear, joy and frustration she has found in her ninth decade' Guardian, Books of the Year 2022Ever dipping into her lengthy career is another frequent thing in this book. Names familiar and less familiar all get mentions into how their paths crossed and the impact those others have had on the arts. The journal starts in 2016 and carries through into 2022. In her introduction she writes that she hoped the book would be "a gentle record of a fulfilled old age. An inspirational journey. It hasn't turned out like that. As I wrote it, my own and the wider world descended into chaos." In December 2017 in the Diary entry Sheila’s Aunt Billie had been moved into a hospital and was apparently fading fast. Billie had fought hard to stay in her flat after her fall. Home alone, classified as 'extremely vulnerable', she finds herself yelling at the TV and talking to the pigeons. But she can at least take a good long look at life – her work and family, her beliefs (many of them the legacy of her wartime childhood) and, uncomfortable as it might be to face, her future. I am a fan of Sheila’s work, and the work of her late husband John Thaw, and she’s always been a presence on British screens, so I was excited to read this. She doesn’t shy away from telling her own opinions and that’s missing in todays world when everyone is so scared of saying the wrong thing.

That she is a caring human being with an innate sense of fair play there can be no doubt. That there aren’t more like her in the world is sad.Old Rage would probably make a better audiobook than a physical book. It is an outpouring…sometimes a rant, sometimes a reminisce, fuelled by emotions and memories..I could hear Sheila’s voice throughout and I would love to hear her actually reading this..