What have I been reading recently, you didn’t ask?

When James Bond is about to die (he’s often about to die, I know, but in this case it actually feels like he might and is genuinely frightened) having been chased down a mountain into a Swiss village, the appearance of Teresa “Tracy” Draco on ice skates is, for my money, one of the most thrilling moments in cinema. She has a car and rescues Bond, and there’s a moment in the chase sequence that follows where Tracy is driving amongst a stock car race and Diana Rigg points out her tongue in a gesture of concentration that is pure magic. Diana’s presence lifts a film which is ridiculous, thrilling and heartbreaking, a bit like this book.

Rachel Stirling’s biography of her mother Diana Rigg has an incredibly strong first page. Maybe one of my favourite first pages ever. During the course of the book fame, parenthood, love, death, money and being cheated on all get examined by Rachel with humour and arresting honesty.

It’s a biography of Rachel as well as Diana and there’s some really interesting mother/daughter stuff in the book. I’m left ruminating on why it is that parents often seem destined to pass on things they hated from their own childhood to their offspring. Young Rachel is determined to be an actor and to do so without the help of her mother’s name and reputation. Which is just as well, because Diana not only refuses to help but makes it incredibly difficult for her daughter (annotated play text pointing out all the mistakes Rachel made? Nice!)

Rachel is able to bring her mother’s voice into the book through an archive of letters sent by Diana at various points in her life. I felt very sad for 8-year-old Diana, sent off to boarding school in England whilst her parents remained in India, and again when wondering where in the world her paramour had disappeared to while she cared for his children.

It’s a book of contradictions. Extreme, visceral love between parent and child at the level of squeezing each other’s blackheads juxtaposed with arguments, therapy and brutally honest but never discussed again letters to each other. Diana Rigg had unbelievable fame, was voted the sexiest TV star of all time and was the only woman James Bond married, yet in her personal life she was treated fairly badly by some pretty useless men and spent decades single. It sounds like it would have been amazing to meet her, depending on the circumstances. As a guest at her homes in Ibiza or France it would have been great fun. As a director, maybe a little scary. “No notes, thank you. Go away.”