Product Description

'Well now, prove it, Sheila. As John would say, "Put your money where your mouth is." Be a depressed widow boring the arse off everyone, or get on with life. Your choice.' In The Two of Us Sheila relived her life with John Thaw - years packed with love and family, delight and despair. And then she looked ahead. What next? Gardening, grannying and grumbling, while they all had their pleasures, weren't going to fill the aching void that John had left. 'Live adventurously', a Quaker advice, was hovering around her brain. Putting her and John's much loved house in France on the market she embarked on a series of journeys. She tried holidaying alone, contending with invisibility and budget flights. She tried travelling in a group, but the questions she wanted to ask were never the ones the guide wanted to answer. She tried relaxing - harder than you might think. Finally, heading out of her comfort zone, she found her travels, and the things she discovered, led her back to her past; to consider her generation - the last to experience the Second World War - and the kind of person it made her. Just Me is a book about moving on, but it is also about looking back, and looking anew. Sheila, whether facing down burglars and Easyjet staff or making friends with waiters and taxi drivers, whether unearthing secrets in Budapest, getting arrested in Thailand, exulting in the art of Venice or searching for a decent cup of coffee in Dorset, is never less than stimulating company. Honest - because if you can't say what you think at seventy-three, when can you? - insightful and wonderfully down to earth, she is a woman seizing the future with wit, gusto and curiosity, on her own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #686 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Heartbreakingly moving wise, funny and deeply touching' Daily Mail 'The thousands of people - many of them widows - will again find solace and comfort in what she has to tell them. But so will many others - those who warm to her gift for directly communicating the open-heartedness and spirit of adventure with which she confronts her life It is the stuff of bestsellers' Joan Bakewell, Guardian 'A bright, often witty account of a life moving forward. She tells her story with youthful vigour' Woman's Weekly 'Glorious' Paul O'Grady

Review
'Written with wit, warmth and insight, Sheila's new book describes moving on, looking at life anew, as well as looking back.'

Review
'A funny yet poignant look at leading a single life after the death of her husband.'

Customer Reviews

How to overcome widowhood
This account by Sheila Hancock of how she coped with widowhood is honest, gripping and nicely-written.
I am not sure who it is intended for....other widows, perhaps, who might (while they are reading this) aquire a little of Mrs Thaw's courage in getting out there after deciding that life, what's left of it, is worth living after all.
It might help other women who find themselves in her situation.
And any single person who travels will sympathise and identify with her graphic account of how it feels to walk into a hotel restaurant for dinner and a table for one. (Take a book!)
I think she's gutsy, and a good writer.

I would give this 50 stars if I could!
I loved `The Two of Us', Sheila's autobiography of her life with John Thaw, and felt doubtful that she could recreate the warmth and quality of this book in a volume entirely about herself and her dealings with widowhood. However, I've never been more wrong - this is an honest, enlightening account of her experiences as a widow, which has inspired me more than any other book I have ever read. Sheila's spirit, her vivacity and sheer courage are alive on every page, and I found myself reading this as slowly as possible, in order to savour every word. It's hard to believe this feisty chick is 75 years old!
This book should be prescribed on the NHS to the depressed, the recently-bereaved and the down-at-heart, as it's more soul-soothing than any self-help book. Please carry on writing Sheila; you're as good an author as you are an actress!

Much More Than Mrs Thaw
Authors reading their own work can sometimes be a mistake, but not in this case.

Sheila Hancock delivers her words as if she is saying them for the first time, giving me, the listener, the sort of intimate experience the work deserves. It is like listening to an audio letter from an old, dear friend.

There is much more to this than simply learning to go on holiday or eat in a restart alone - as much of the publicity surrounding the launch suggested - and it will bear repeat listening.

She is clearly a very interesting, intelligent woman, not something you can say about all actresses, and her tales of times old and recent make up a revealing, but definitely not sensationalistic, picture of someone I wished I'd known better before.