Oh Miriam!: Stories from an Extraordinary Life

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Readers looking for dirty laundry or juicy showbiz gossip may be frustrated. Margolyes hasn’t been drunk since a university sherry party in 1960 and isn’t interested in popular culture. She’s not permitted to write much about her spouse, Heather, though we do learn the couple have kept separate houses and bedrooms throughout their 54-year relationship. As an agony aunt, Margolyes can be starchy. Her advice to today’s anxious teenagers: “Keep clean, keep reading and travel while you can.” Miriam MargolyesBAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkeyto the Cadbury’s Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from LadyWhiteadderto Professor Sprout, Miriam is one of the most recognisable actresses working today.From being escorted off the Today programme (for saying what we were all thinking) to declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave; from Tales of the Unexpected to Graham Norton’s sofa, she is our most loved and most outspoken national treasure – and Oh Miriam! takes you both inside her head and her heart.

Oh Miriam! has been such a constant refrain in my life, said in all kinds of tones – laughs, surprised gasps and orgasmic sighs (I’m hoping for all of those from you as you read on!) – that it had to be the title of this book. And with a cast list that stretches from Churchill to DiCaprio, Dahl to Dietrich, Princess Margaret to Maggie Smith, I’ve so much more to tell you and so much more to say. She resists being patronised – these days by admirers, not detractors. People want her to be a swearing machine, she notes of her Cameo requests: “I have to grind the words out, almost through gritted teeth.” She doesn’t see why the Harry Potter films, which introduced her to a new generation, had to be made. (She hasn’t read the books and slept through the premieres.) She has grown less interested in her visible lesbian role, one that inspired queer supporters for decades. “I slightly resist when gay groups want me to be their patron… I just don’t think we need to be separated,” she writes. From being escorted off the Today programme (for saying what we were all thinking) to declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave; from Tales of the Unexpected to Graham Norton’s sofa, she is our most loved and most outspoken national treasure – and Oh Miriam! takes you both inside her head and her heart. Reliably outrageous and always entertaining, join Miriam, in conversation, for a riotous evening as full of life and surprises as the actress herself.

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Reliably outrageous and always entertaining, join Miriam in conversation for a riotous evening as full of life and surprises as the actress herself. There is something heroic in her unruliness. Oddly, you wish she allowed herself to be a touch more serious at times, about herself and the freedom to develop her themes, but it’s unwise to have expectations around Margolyes. Let her take the lead and enjoy the show. Oh Miriam! has been such a constant refrain in my life, said in all kinds of tones - laughs, surprised gasps and orgasmic sighs (I'm hoping for all of those from you as you read on!) - that it had to be the title of this book. And with a cast list that stretches from Churchill to DiCaprio, Dahl to Dietrich, Princess Margaret to Maggie Smith, I've so much more to tell you and so much more to say. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from an evening with Miriam, but after seeing the infamous Graham Norton interviews, I knew anything could happen. My new book is called OH MIRIAM! – something that has been said to me a lot over the years (often in tones of strong disapproval) – and it contains lots more revelations and stories and discoveries and I can’t wait to share it with you all”.

Snortingly funny . . . deliciously unbridled . . . There is something heroic in her unruliness. Let Miriam take the lead and enjoy the show’RHIK SAMADDER, Observer The evening was littered with the outrageous honesty and controversy that quite often sees her hitting the headlines of the tabloids. That led her to remark; "Jesus was a bloody good bloke, not the son of God by any means, but a good bloke with the right idea."My new book is called OH MIRIAM! - something that has been said to me a lot over the years (often in tones of strong disapproval) - and it contains lots more revelations and stories and discoveries and I can’t wait to share it with you all' Irrepressible . . . A life-enhancing rollercoaster of a ride . . . this book is like Margolyes herself – outspoken, ebullient and unexpectedly wise’EMMA LEE-POTTER, Daily Express In closing the show, she begged people to be kind to each other and to those less fortunate, urging people to care as ‘that is all that really matters in the end.’

My new book is called OH MIRIAM! - something that has been said to me a lot over the years (often in tones of strong disapproval) - and it contains lots more revelations and stories and discoveries and I can’t wait to share it with you all”.

In a live interview to promote her latest memoir ‘Oh Miriam!’ this was a chance to hear her speak out on her life, her loves, and to even pause to break wind on stage. BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkey to the Cadbury’s Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, Miriam is one of the most recognisable actresses working today. For all the cheeky mischief and fierce swearing, there’s a genuine warmth and humility to her that oozes sincerity, she doesn't want to be a big deal, she is humble to a fault, but also proud of her achievements and comfortable with who she is. She left the stage to a standing ovation after batting away any notion that she was a ’national treasure’. That was probably the only thing she got wrong all night. Our naughtiest national treasure . . . famously filthy, funny and phlegmatic . . . Oh Miriam! is Margolyes's manifesto for a fulfilled life . . . She loves to tell it straight. And the older she gets, the straighter she tells it' SIMON HATTENSTONE, Guardian

BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkeyto the Cadbury’s Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from LadyWhiteadderto Professor Sprout, Miriam is one of the most recognisable actresses working today. The humour was interspersed with sadness from her own life and the terrible effect her sexuality had on her relationship with her mother, yet somehow she even turned that truly sombre moment into a cheery sing-song.Snortingly funny . . . deliciously unbridled . . . There is something heroic in her unruliness. Let Miriam take the lead and enjoy the show' RHIK SAMADDER, Observer It was good to be prepared, but nothing could have prepared me for one recollection of a sordid encounter at the opera. Quite simply, she has no filter and there were many targets for her vitriol, mainly the Conservative Party. I'll give you a spoiler, she's not a fan, and she has a special four-letter word to prove it. BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything fromMonkeyto the Cadbury’s Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from LadyWhiteadderto Professor Sprout, Miriam is one of the most recognisable actresses working today. My new book is called OH MIRIAM! -- something that has been said to me a lot over the years (often in tones of strong disapproval) and it contains lots more revelations and stories and discoveries and I can’t wait to share it with you all”. Why has she written a new book? Her honesty is brutal; "Because they offered to pay me an absolute fortune, and they are paying me a whopping amount of money to do this tour."