Actress Dame Eileen Atkins' memoir of her childhood and early career.

Will She Do? is the story of a girl from a council estate in Tottenham, born in 1934 to an electric-meter reader and a seamstress, and determined to be an actress. Candid and witty, this memoir takes her from her awkward performances in working-men's clubs at six years of age as dancing Baby Eileen, through the war years in London, to her breakthrough at 32 on Broadway.

She co-created Upstairs, Downstairs and wrote the screenplay for Mrs Dalloway (for which she won an Evening Standard Award) and, at age 86,, this is her first autobiographical work.

Characterised by an eye for the absurd, a terrific knack for storytelling and an insistence on honesty, Will She Do? is a wonderful raconteur's tale about family, about class, about youthful ambition and big dreams and what really goes on behind the scenes.

Made a Dame in 1991, Eileen Atkins has been on American and British stage and screen since 1957 and has won an Emmy, a BAFTA and is a three-time Olivier Award winner. Her theatre performances include The Height of the Storm, Ellen Terry and All that Fall, and she has appeared in television and films ranging from Doc Martin to Cranford and The Crown.

Read by Eileen Atkins
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4 Show less