Look Back With Mixed Feelings

I've now discovered that there are actually four volumes in Dodie Smith's delightful autobiography; I think Look Back With Mixed Feelings might be my favourite title, though. This second book in the series covers Smith's late adolescence and early twenties, a period when she was training at 'the Academy' (later better known as RADA) and beginning to make her way in the theatre. You would barely guess that the First World War was going on during these years, and Smith herself admits to feeling guilty for giving the conflict so little thought. Like a typical teenager, she is mostly preoccupied with falling in and out of love and trying to find work. 

Probably the most important event for Smith during these years was the death of her beloved mother. After this, Smith drifted out of her family's orbit, though the band of Manchester uncles were as loving and supportive as ever, often coming to the rescue with badly needed funds. Again, like any young person, Smith turned to her 'Gang' of friends, mostly fellow members of the Three Arts Club, a home from home-cum-boarding house for women artists, writers and actors, which sounds rather like living in college, though I didn't think much of the cheap cubicle option, windowless, with the partitions not even reaching the ground!

There's much discussion of cocoa made on gas rings, theatrical 'digs' with sympathetic landladies, stage mishaps, flitting from one play to another (or, sadly, in Smith's case, not getting work for ages) and it's remarkable to reflect on this vanished world where even in the thick of war, plays were being constantly mounted, toured and even taken to the battlefront. There must have been thousands of people working in the theatre, and of course Noel Streatfeild also spent years in the same milieu (they were almost exactly the same age, I wonder if they ever came across each other?)

I've already nabbed Look Back in Astonishment (another great title) but incredibly, the usually reliable Athenaeum doesn't have the final volume, Look Back With Gratitude. It's just possible I might have a Christmas present on the way...