Old Rage, by Sheila Hancock

Author: Sheila Hancock. Review by Nick Wilde.

As many readers will know, Sheila Hancock takes her Quakerism seriously. In this latest work of autobiography (covering 2016 to 2021), she begins with a note about becoming a dame. Should she accept? Is it in keeping with a Quaker belief in equality? She decides that to turn it down would be ungracious.

Sheila has most recently been on TV and radio as a panellist on comedy shows. She was also featured in the family history series Who Do You Think You Are?, and with Gyles Brandreth on a canal boat. She has appeared in many films. But her career began in repertory theatre, in plays by Harold Pinter and others, including the revival of The Birthday Party fifty years after its disastrous first showing.

Sheila often refers to her second husband, actor John Thaw, about whom she wrote in The Two of Us. But she also mentions her first husband, Alec Ross, as well as her sister, Billie, and her family. This gives her the chance to meditate on old age and death – much of what she writes will resonate with those of a similar age.

In 2016, she rages against Brexit, having appeared in a television debate the night before the referendum. She had hated the Germans and Japanese in the second world war, but now she hated all war, and believed that a united Europe would help put an end to it. She hates the new blue passport, and wants to hang on to her European one as long as possible.

There’s a moving moment when, filming in Wales, she came back to her hotel room to find it freezing. The caretaker who came to fix the radiator saw the white poppy on her bed. After recounting his war experiences, he said ‘I’ve changed my mind about war’ and asked if he could have her white poppy. She writes about the Peace Testimony and Quakerism with some feeling. This is her serious side. She quotes Quaker faith & practice a number of times, and rages about the state of the country and the world. There is much to agree with. She even covers Quaker decision making. Though she loves the lack of certainty, she comments on the length of time it can take to make a decision: ‘It took months to decide on the chairs… then we are obliged to check that the firm making them is ethically sound.’

As a single elderly lady living alone, Sheila had mixed feelings about lockdown. She tries to obey the rules (when she is clear what they are) and we are reminded of those rules we had to follow with an amused bewilderment. She relates driving into London to go to Oxford Street, expecting to be arrested any minute. One wonders what she made of Boris Johnson’s parties. Like many of us, she eventually got the hang of Zoom. She recalls an online family meeting, flummoxed by the shouts of ‘Unmute! Unmute!’. We’ve all been there.

This is an easy read, funny and stimulating at the same time. I hope she is working on ‘Even Older Rage’.

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