The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw

This book celebrates the life of British actor John Thaw through the eyes of actress Shelia Hancock, who also happened to be his wife for 28 full years. I expected this book to be sad and greif stricken but there is only appropriate levels of sadness here. Hancock celebrates her husband's life with extraodinary candor and sensitivity. She leaves no stone unturned but in doing so is not muck raking nor commercialising her loss. She is every bit as brave and gutsily excising of her own greif and pain. I think Sheila really HAD to write this to tie the threads of her enormous loss together, John had put himself out on limb to be with her and she had done the same to keep him, on more than one occassion. In loosing him to cancer she had to find a way to explain the loss to herself and to John's public, he was a terribly adored actor and regarded as a national treasure. She explains everything beautifully here and I hope it helped her as much as I and others have enjoyed understanding them both in her work.

This is a memoir of love, loss and recovery. It is filled with pictures throughout, which made the book, along with the glossy color prints in the photo section. As a young man, John Shaw looked like my son Zach, Roman nose and all. As the older one with silvery white hair, he looked marvelous.

She used this quote in the book, somewhere toward the middle: (from Albert Camus on the Spanish Civil War) "Men learnt that we can be right and still be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own reward." John fought with depression all of his life, along with being a workaholic.

He appeared in many plays and movies in England. She was a sexy actress. They appeared together in Michael Frayn's "The Two Of Us' which was a failure, but their marriage survived through thick and thin. "Ours was not a conventional love affair, but whose is? We made up our own rules as we went along. It consumed us for twenty-eight years.

In 1955, she married Alec Ross who died in 1961 of cancer. They had a daughter, Joanne. In 1964, she married John Shaw and, at the age of 38, gave birth to her second daughter, Abby. There is a picture of her in the dyed (orange) fox longcoat and fur hat she was wearing when she met John. After his death on February 21, 2002, she says "Life goes on -- and on and on." They had a blessed life one with big cars (a Morgan) and big Gothic Victorian style homes; they had successful careers both before and during the marriage.

Now, she is lovely with her white hair. Who knows, she may find yet another memorable love. That would be great!

I started this book because I have fond memories of John Thaw zooming round London in 'The Sweeney' and I dream of one day having a red Jaguar like the one he drove in 'Inspector Morse'. However, there was another side of John Thaw I knew nothing about, a man who struggled with depression and alcoholism....

Sheila Hancock, his wife, tells this beautiful warts and all love story as a tribute to the whole man. We read about the hell he put himself and those he loved through when he was drinking and about his recovering from alcoholism and how this rejuvenated his relationships.

Tragically, John Thaw died of cancer in 2002. The book is a tribute to the man as an actor and (and this was more important to me) a heartfelt love letter telling of the trials, tribulations and eventual triumph of a marriage which, while it might have been made in heaven, put both Mr Thaw and Ms Hancock through more than their share of hell.

very touchingly written by John Thaw's wife. She was very much in love and it is very heartbreaking to read what they had to endure at the end of his life.

I am a huge fan of John Thaw so this book was perfect for me. I enjoyed learning more about this incredible actor.

I got through 80% of this book. Too depressing at the end. We did not know this man who was a great actor. We liked his Morse persona.