Imogen Hassall
Bibliography

Dan Leissner
Tuesday’s Child – The Life and Death of Imogen Hassall.
Baltimore (Maryland): Luminary Press (Midnight Marquee) 2002.

Over the last couple of months a good number of people found my web site by googling Imogen Hassall’s name. Mind you this was at a time when I had pretty much sweet eff all about her. I remembered her (vaguely) from When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, but other than that knew very little about her and the reason why a good number of web surfers were still fascinated enough by her to visit my site. An initial web search revealed little else but that she appeared to have had a very tragic life that resulted in her committing suicide in 1980.

Imagine my delight when I noticed that Midnight Marquee had published a book about her life!

The moment I had this book in my possession…. it was taken off me again by The Blonde in my life who is usually not much into Hammer or Cult films, but is a sucker for a good Real Life drama. She gave the book her thumbs up.

When I finally managed to get a hold of it again, I couldn’t help but agree: Tuesday’s Child is everything you ever wanted to know about Hassall’s life and times. The author was initially in the same position as me and knew little about her. Following a very emotionally charged period of his life - beautifully retold in the introduction, a little personal master piece about what influences arts and stars can have on your private life – he started investigating the actress’ biography and subsequently managed to interview a lot of her family, friends and colleagues.

As a result the book is full of personal insights of people who knew Hassall well and includes a wealth of rare private photographs. The only thing Tuesday’s Child may fall a little bit short on at times is in-depth film reviews.

But then again, this is a biography, not a “Complete Films” kind of book. It’s a work that aims at explaining an often self-destructive personality who on a superficial level seems to have had it all, but was bitterly divided over her public image and the pressure of keeping up with expectations associated with coming from a very well known artistic family.

So if you found my site because you wanted to learn more about Hassall, do yourself a favour and buy this book! Imogen would indeed be “delighted to know that we’re all talking about her”. 

The book can be ordered via Midnight Marquee, though the fastest and most convenient option is directly via the author. The book is not available via Amazon.

 

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