Dorothy

Synopsis

There is much humour in the book, of course, but there is also reflection on the sources of that humour: a life in the footlights but also in the shadows. Dorothy Paul presents a selection of the many parts she has played, on stage and off; her story is touching, revealing and, ultimately, a celebration of a great talent.She has been called a national treasure and has had packed audiences choking with laughter wherever she has travelled with her one-woman shows. Now Dorothy Paul takes to the page with the story of her childhood in Dennistoun, her working life from the days with Kraft Cheese to the triumph of The Steamie ('she's tough and sexy - a tenement goddess with a tongue that could shift rust') her marriage and her roller-coaster stage career. Dorothy's nostalgia is sharply observed and never sentimental. As a reviewer of her show remarked, 'what she sends up, she never puts down'. The vivid characters familiar from her shows - ingenious father, long-suffering mother, the tribe of aunts and at least two criminal teachers - are joined here by Variety stars and a galaxy of actors, so that the book is not only an autobiography of Dorothy Paul but also a chapter in the history of the Scottish stage and of the early days of Scottish Television.