Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life
Written by Peter Ackroyd
Narrated by Gildart Jackson
5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
A gripping short biography of the extraordinary Alfred Hitchock, the master of suspense.
Alfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father's shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century?
As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of him, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films: Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, and James Stewart despair of his detached directing style and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endures cuts and bruises from a real-life fearsome flock of birds.
Alfred Hitchcock wrests the director's chair back from the master of control and discovers what lurks just out of sight, in the corner of the shot.
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning novelist, as well as a broadcaster, biographer, poet and historian. He is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction bestsellers, Thames: Sacred River and London: The Biography, as well as the History of England series. He holds a CBE for services to literature and lives in London.
More audiobooks from Peter Ackroyd
London: The Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial of Elizabeth Cree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Venice: Pure City Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chaucer: Ackroyd's Brief Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Brothers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Alfred Hitchcock
Related audiobooks
The Camera Lies: Acting for Hitchcock Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBen Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kubrick: An Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler and the Habsburgs: The Fuhrer's Vendetta Against the Austrian Royals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lord Kitchener (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ingenious Mr. Pyke: Inventor, Fugitive, Spy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpymaster: The Man Who Saved MI6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing John Wayne: The Making of the Conqueror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Home Front: 1941-1942 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood Anecdotes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Idiots, Follies and Misadventures Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Tinder Box: The Iroquois Theatre Disaster 1903 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret of the Smoked Spectacles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRipped from the Headlines!: The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movies’ Most Memorable Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battle of the Bulge [The Young Readers Adaptation] Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier's First Gunfighter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5NPR Laughter Therapy: Funny for a Living Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mr. Media: The Billy Hayes Interview Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Twilight Zone Haiku Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsH. P. Lovecraft Volume 2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seven H.P. Lovecraft Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Criminal from Lost Honour Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Night Window Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51922: Scenes from a Turbulent Year Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Hitler: History in an Hour Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5H. P. Lovecraft Volume 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Historical Biographies For You
The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A. Lincoln: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Bondage and My Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Alfred Hitchcock
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Interesting and detailed account of a true genius.
Alfred Hitchcock transcends art, and remains the standard for directing a thriller. His movies were deep and complex and maintained lives of their own; they always had traces of fun and amusement, tastefully and purposely implemented to remind you it's just a movie. He had the ability to completely remove you from your reality, and replace it with his.