'Hershman has managed to gather a huge amount of information and distill it into a book that is not only respectful but full of insights into what makes this unstarriest of stars able to produce brilliant work without appearing to break a sweat.' - Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday He was a Salford-born, homework-hating bookie's son who broke the social barriers of British film. He did his share of roistering, and yet outlived his contemporaries and dodged typecasting to become a five-time Oscar nominee and one of our most durable international stars. Bon vivant, perennial rebel, self-effacing character actor, charismatic charmer, mentor to a generation of working-class artists, a byword for professionalism, lover of horseflesh and female flesh – Albert Finney is all these things and more. Gabriel Hershman's colourful and riveting account of Finney's life and work, which draws on interviews with many of his directors and co-stars, examines how one of Britain's greatest actors built a glittering career without sacrificing his integrity.

Albert Finney was once the screen's incarnation of the new British working-class hero. In the theatre, he was hailed as the new Olivier. Yet, instead of actively pursuing either image, he went his own way. This biography, attempts to probe the real man beneath the many masks of the actor, director, traveller, bon viveur and lover.

Albert Finney was a Salford-born, homework-hating bookie’s son who broke the social barriers of British film. He did his share of roistering, and yet outlived his contemporaries and dodged typecasting to become a five-time Oscar nominee and one of our most durable international stars. Bon vivant, perennial rebel, self-effacing character actor, charismatic charmer, mentor to a generation of working-class artists, a byword for professionalism, lover of horseflesh and female flesh – Albert Finney is all these things and more. Gabriel Hershman’s colourful and riveting account of Finney’s life and work, drawing on interviews with many of his directors and co-stars, examines how one of Britain’s greatest actors built a glittering career without sacrificing his integrity.

One of the most iconic villains in the history of television, the enigmatic Cigarette Smoking Man fascinated legions of fans of the 1990s hit TV series, The X-Files. Best known as 'Cancerman', the readers of TV Guide voted William B. Davis 'Television's Favourite Villain'. The man himself is a Canadian actor and director, whose revelations in this memoir will entertain and intrigue the millions of worldwide X-Files aficionados.

Albert Finney has been a film and stage star for over 40 years, ever since first taking the movie and theater worlds by storm in 1960 with his roles in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Billy Liar. Oscar-nominated performances followed in Tome Jones, Mueder on the Orient Express, The Dresser, and Under the Volcano. Now 66, Finney's star on both sides of the Atlantic is still rising as he matures into a consistently impressive range of roles. He co-starred again with Tom Courtenay in the BAFTA-winning A Rather English Marriage and received a fifth Oscar nomination for his role opposite Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovitch.

The owner of a haunted country inn contends with death, fatherhood, romantic woes, and alcoholism in this humorous and “rattling good ghost story” from a Booker Prize–winning author (The New York Times) Maurice Allington has reached middle age and is haunted by death. As he says, “I honestly can’t see why everybody who isn’t a child, everybody who’s theoretically old enough to have understood what death means, doesn’t spend all his time thinking about it. It’s a pretty arresting thought.” He also happens to own and run a country inn that is haunted. The Green Man opens as Maurice’s father drops dead (had he seen something in the room?) and continues as friends and family convene for the funeral. Maurice’s problems are many and increasing: How to deal with his own declining health? How to reach out to a teenage daughter who watches TV all the time? How to get his best friend’s wife in the sack? How to find another drink? (And another.) And then there is always death. The Green Man is a ghost story that hits a live nerve, a very black comedy with an uncannily happy ending: in other words, Kingsley Amis at his best.