Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries

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More of him comes into view when you see what those journals were and from where this material was taken. The star's thoughts reveal a man unwilling to suffer fools or mince his words - most of the time Alan Rickman's voice was a purr, but it masked sharp claws . Rather than any continuing stream of bile, what we get in Madly, Deeply is a great deal of low-level griping interspersed with long lists of celebrities and exhausting accounts of world travel . I did get to see him act on stage too though, as a very world-weary Anthony against Helen Mirren’s Cleopatra, again at the National Theatre in 1998. He knows everyone, yet he’s pretty normal underneath, but overall, he’s an actor’s actor and director who strives to do the best work always.

Yet Rickman is genuinely stunned when Sean Mathias, trying to direct him in Shakespeare, finally demands, ‘Would it hurt you to show some f***ing charm? I’ve stayed away from Harry Potter, which he loved and hated doing in equal measure it seems, but you can read extracts from the diaries about the films in the Guardian here. From the outside, his life appears an exhausting whirl of rehearsals, film screenings, theatre visits, awards ceremonies, house purchases and mad dashes to catch planes (more than once, he boards a flight and realises he has left half his clothes hanging in the hotel wardrobe). The book is a relentlessly waspish grumble about fellow actors delivering disappointing performances . As a diary it darts about and while the content is extensive and lots of pockets of interesting bits it’s just so hard to follow.

Yes he's a bit cantankerous and yes he's pretty opinionated but no, he's never rude or disrespectful. It is particularly amusing to read him railing against critics, while himself displaying all the skills required for the job . It is “authorised” (by Alan Rickman’s estate), and includes an afterword from Rickman’s widow Rima Horton, but, despite some articles claiming that Rickman intended for his diaries to be published, the introduction states that “We do not know whether Alan would like to have seen his diaries published”. Most of the time, Rickman feels ‘demeaned and soiled,’ is ‘completely knackered’ by Hollywood’s demands, the ‘cold-shouldering mixed up with the kiss on the cheek’. Die Hard gets mentioned a lot, although he eventually admits to a certain fondness for the place it has in the culture.

Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar View image in fullscreen Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in 1988’s Die Hard: ‘I had never seen a suaver, funnier screen villain and I still haven’t. Would he want the world to know how brilliant yet self-absorbed he found Kate Winslet when he directed her in the film A Little Chaos .Love Island All Stars viewers praise Sophie Piper for 'snitching' on scheming Georgia Steel during secret flirty chat with Tom Clare: 'He's gonna tell the villa! Following the second film in 2002, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rickman tried to quit again. The diaries show someone not as funny or as self-deprecating as fans might expect, but that’s hardly his fault. Anyway, I think this book will appeal to many, but it is not for me, and it has nothing to do with Alan Rickman's thoughts, feelings or writing.

I thought the self important thespian grated when referencing political events and meetings with politicians with an apparently blinkered naïveté about politics.I feel like I could've read a wikipedia page and come out with the same information and way less irritation. I would have preferred the earlier, more random diary entries from his younger life put at the beginning though. So much of Rickman's character as it was preserved on screen cannot be captured in words - his unmistakable voice, his towering presence and charisma. Esto, por supuesto, en compañía de amigos, de Rima, su alma gemela, y de incontables grandes nombres que forjan el universo cinematográfico que conocemos. In his memoir, Rickman reveals that Rowling “nervously” told him three words that kept him hanging on through the series.