Raise a Toast for “The Sherries”! The First of Many???

A new annual, theatre-related book prize has been set up in honour of late critic Sheridan Morley, who passed away last year (See News, 16 May 2007). Over a long career, Morley penned more than 30 books, including major biographies of Noel Coward, John Gielgud and his father Robert Morley. The Sheridan Morley Book Prize aims to continue Morley’s legacy and celebrate the art of theatre biography, autobiography, diaries, journals and memoirs.

The inaugural “Sherries” were held today (22 April 2008) at the Garrick Club with the prize, including a cheque for £2,000, going to Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole for his Will and Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life, which was released in paperback last February following its initial April 2006 hardcover publication. It’s a busy week for Dromgoole – and the bard. The director’s new production of King Lear, which launches the Globe’s 2008 season, starts performances tomorrow, on Shakespeare’s birthday.

Will and Me triumphed on a Sherry shortlist that also comprised Rudolf Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanagh, Taking Stock by Max Stafford-Clark and Philip Roberts and The Worst It Can Be Is a Disaster by the Royal Exchange’s Braham Murray. There were honourable mentions for Coral Browne: ‘This Effing Lady’ by Rose Collis and Some Sort of a Life by Miriam Karlin and Jan Sargent.