When you hear about Lily E Hirsch’s book Nowhere To Go But Up: What Angela Lansbury Can Teach Us About Living A Big Life, complete with a large sketch of Lansbury on the cover, you wonder at first what it is all about.
Quickly, it becomes apparent that the focus of the book is Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, mystery writer and general busybody, in the long-running US TV series Murder, She Wrote.
Hirsch has absorbed herself in each of the 264 episodes the series enjoyed through an 11-year run. However, as noted in the subtitle, Angela Lansbury did indeed live a big life, living into her 90s and enjoying fame on the big screen and on stage as well as on television. She raised a family and even made a fitness video in her 60s.
Born in England, she was a granddaughter of Labour leader George Lansbury, and was the first cousin of Oliver Postgate, creator of Smallfilms and series such as The Clangers. Angela went to Hollywood as a teenager and slotted into films with ease, later moving into leading roles on Broadway.
She created defining roles on the Broadway stage, including Cora in Anyone Can Whistle, the title role in Mame, Aurelia in Dear World, and Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd. And she retained her status at the top of her career for six decades. I clearly remember seeing her as the amazingly active Mme Arcati in the 2014 West End revival of Blithe Spirit.
This is an extremely readable look at the life of a remarkable woman and performer through the lens of her life and the role she made her own in primetime TV.
The chapter titles are inspired by her work; the trivia boxes place her life and career in context. It’s not exactly a biography, or a career retrospective, or a self-help book.
Nowhere To Go But Up – the title comes from a song Angela sings in the film Mary Poppins Returns – is never less than entertaining, with pop culture references, life lessons, and left-field content like quizzes and horoscopes.
What it lacks in vibrant illustrations, it makes up for with Hirsch’s research, enthusiasm, and admiration for the work of an artist she describes as ‘iconic’.
If you are a fan of Angela Lansbury or any woman who has made a major contribution to 20th century pop culture, then this book will have something to offer you.
I may have expected a bit more in-depth analysis of her musical roles, but Hirsch certainly knows her subject and doesn’t shy away from celebrating her.
Nowhere To Go But Up: What Angela Lansbury Can Teach Us About Living A Big Life by Lily E Hirsch is published by Bloomsbury Publishing and available now.