"My Name Escapes Me, the diaries of Sir Alec Guinness, became an international bestseller when published in 1996. This new volume contains Sir Alec's journal since the summer of that year. " "The summer of 1996 ended well with an operation that successfully treated an eye which had been useless for almost ten years. Further good news on the health front followed in March 1997. These were tumultuous times for the nation - the election of Mr Blair, the death of Diana - but other matters continued to hold equal importance in Hampshire: the difficulties of the plane trees during the dry summer, the extraordinary appearance in the skies of the Hale-Bopp comet, the vulnerability of the hassocks in Steep Church and the experiments with Chinese cooking, encouraged by Ken Hom's TV enthusiasm. " "Shakespeare's birthday (his 433rd) is celebrated with a visit to Baz Luhrmann's film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which gives pleasure despite its title and despite the fact that it leads to the melancholy thought that the worst Romeo ever was 'none other than me, moi-meme'. And a revival of Terence Rattigan's Cause Celebre at the Lyric prompts some memories of the playwright who is putting bums on seats thirty years after he was dismissed by the avant-garde. "--Jacket.