Happy Hoofer

'I've always been wilful... I've always been stubborn and always determined'One of our best-loved actresses, Celia Imrie would rather have been a dancer. As a child she planned to join the Royal Ballet and marry Rudolf Nureyev. Now she has become one of our finest and funniest performers, on stage, TV and screen - adored for her roles in Acorn Antiques and dinnerladies, as well as films including Calendar Girls and Nanny McPhee.In her hugely entertaining autobiography Celia Imrie recounts a life hurtling (not always intentionally) into adventures both on stage and off. Whether it's finding herself on stage with half the scenery stuck to her cardigan, or being kidnapped on her way to location, somehow she emerges from the chaos unscathed.Acting, she admits, is a mad, chaotic profession and it is her refreshing honesty, sense of mischief, fun and almost unruffled determination in the face of it all that makes this autobiography a never-ending delight.

For tasty gossip, Celia is the hottest ticket in town...The Happy Hoofer is backstage gossip from the premiere league., From the moment where she finds herself on stage with scenery stuck to her cardigan, to the time she was kidnapped on her way to a location, she emerges with both her sense of humour and dignity in tact., If you're anything like me, seeing Celia Imrie's name flash onscreen inspires a sigh of relief. I think, "Class act. Everything's going to be OK." Her memoir, The Happy Hoofer, is every bit as assured and entertaining. It's a lively romp populated by the entertainment world's great, good, and downright naughty (often Imrie)., Her new autobiography is full of drama... and obviously, from someone so closely associated with comedy, it's extremely funny, wildly entertaining

Celia Imrie is an Olivier Award-winning actress. In a career starting in the early 1970s, Imrie has played Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac, Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies, Celia in Calendar Girls and most famously Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques, among many others. She has been described as 'one of the greatest British actresses of recent decades' and now lives in London and the Isle of Wight.