Rupert Everett (19:30 BST)

‘Deliciously gifted... Nothing and no one escapes his attention’ Observer

A brilliantly written, evocative, witty and funny collection of stories that draw on the wealth of film and TV ideas created over the course of a fascinating career. As an actor Rupert Everett was most recently on our screens in Napoleon. As writer and director, his film of Oscar Wilde’s later years, The Happy Prince, was released to widespread acclaim.

Here in The American No, he brings us seven stories of love and loss, drama and glamour, hope and rejection, all written with the insight of an experienced actor, adding up to an intriguing self-portrait of himself at work.

A cast of extraordinary characters immerse the reader in exhilarating worlds, from a touching portrayal of Proust’s creative life and childhood and the ferociously unforgiving world of a Los Angeles talent agency to a middle-aged Russian countess confronting sex and age in a Cotswold teashop and a blackly humorous story of a chaotic and emotional funeral in Paris. His earlier volumes of memoir, Red Carpets and other Banana Skins and Vanished Years became instant best-sellers.

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