Books: To The End of the World

Fuelled by his obsession with Oscar Wilde, Rupert Everett maps his extraordinary journey around Europe and into the past

Rupert Everett is probably as well known now for his writing as he is for his acting.In any case, Everett has become one of the most charming writers about modern fame. His earlier memories, the rough Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, followed by Vanished Years, were round, indiscreet, and spirited, as one might expect.

Here he is in the new book on the joys of train travel: "Once I am on the rails and the past is behind me, I experience a kind of weightless ecstasy, an affection spilled over the world, which seems better from a passing train. Even one's problems reach a kind of glamour of fin de siècle".

Synopsis: Travelling around Europe for the film, he weaves extraordinary tales of his past, recalling wild times, encounters of aberrations and lost friends. There are celebrities, of course. But we also find the glamorous but doomed Aunt Peta, who presents Rupert (at the age of three) to the joys of make-up. In the 1990s, in Paris, his great friend Lychee burns brightly, and disappeared. While in London in the 1970s, a teenager "strangely tall, beyond size zero", Rupert is expelled from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Unshakably honest and extremely entertaining, To the End of the World offers a unique insight into the 'snakes and stairs' of filmmaking. It is also an autobiography with the soul and provocative thought of one of our most beloved and talented actors and writers.

Originally published : 8 October 2020

Author : Rupert Everett

Genres : Biography, Autobiography