Got to give it 3 stars. I like Peter Ackroyd and this is a good book about one of my favorite directors but it reads less like a biography and more like a history of his films and filmmaking. It is ,however, a good place to start if you want an introduction to the great Alfred Hitchcock. ( )

This is a good starting-point for those unfamiliar with Hitchcock's work and methods. Anyone who's already read Hitchcock / Truffaut won't learn anything mind-blowing or new--but there's still much to enjoy. Ackroyd is very good with the older Hitchcock, phoning in his projects, and there are touching moments in which the reader feels sorry for an old man who's richer than Croesus but is still unhappy. Part of the problem with any biography of Hitchcock is that his life was all lived in his art--there are no scandals, tempestuous marriages, arguments, etc. that give a biographer material. Hitchcock lived in his films. ( )

A very readable book on this famous movie director, filling in a lot of blanks. ( )

Interesting and informative, yet not all that it could have been. The book's slant was definitely about Hitchcock the man, revealing a lot about his basic nature and temperament, though I kept wondering how accurate the author's conclusions were. I guess I was hoping for more about the making of the various films. Still taught me a lot that I did not previously know. ( )

I enjoyed this book, but wish it had been longer ,more detail. It did start with his childhood and progressed through his many movies, his interactions with the 'stars' and ended with his death. Seems to be a clear, honest description of his life. ( )

A pretty good bio on the famous director. The book covering of course his well known movies and tv series, but also a good accounting of his character and personal life. Hitchcock could often be as strange and unpredictable as his movies and tied in often with some of the fears and obsessions that drove him.

One of the more surprising things about his works was that "Psycho" for which he may be most well known by the masses was actually not expected by himself to be much when first released. It seemed that he became ensnared in the quest to top his success that it ultimately did not pan out as his career malingered along with his age and mental decline. ( )

3.5 I feel as if I grew up with this man's movies, his were the first that left me terror stricken, The Birds, watching with my cousins, Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, his filmmaking was genius. His youth pointed the way to how he developed as a filmmaker and a man. Overweight, friendless, terrified on enclosed places he made his way to movie theaters, where short films were shown, silent films in the beginning of course. He became a control freak, cruel taskmaster, loved blonde women and loved to see their terrified faces when filming, often going over and over a scene.

While we can see from his youth, the person he grew into, this short bio never really gets to the heart, the emotional center, an in depth look into Hitchcock as a person. The scenes and writing on his filmmaking were outstanding and I loved reading those, but I read this feeling something was missing. So in one way I loved this book, reading and hearing about all the old movies, stars, his favorites, I was disappointed that I still don't have a grasp in Hitchcock the man. As a lover of his films this was interesting and well done, so one's enjoyment will depend on what they want to get out of this book.

ARC from publisher. ( )

This is a great book for those who love Hitchcock. The writing style is rather heavy and dull, but with a person like Alfred Hitchcock, I imagine it was difficult for the author to write this in a different style. It is packed with information and interesting things about Hitchcock.



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And yet more feet of clay appear on icons. Perversion, perverseness, promiscuity… oh well. I suppose it was naïve to think, for example, Grace Kelly didn't have that many affairs. So, when I have no more illusions left, does that mean I'm finally all grown up, or … I'm dead?

Anyway. The image of Hitchcock that I have always had was of a confident cuddly genial funny teddy bear of a man, brilliant at what he did. In this short biography, Peter Ackroyd dismantles all of that and more.

It was extremely readable; it retained my interest as it traveled briskly from Alfred Hitchcock's birth and childhood and education to his early career, odd courtship and marriage, and growth as a director. And then film by film it outlines the rest of his life. I saw a review which complained about the book being merely a filmography – but given Hitchcock's obsessive drive to always be working, it would be difficult to frame the book in any other way. His life was a filmography.

I've loved so many of the Hitchcock films - Lifeboat? Come on – that it was a little (wait for it) disillusioning to read about how they came about. It was well-written, if somewhat superficial; it was fascinating – but, overall, a sad story, which I am going to do my best to forget it by the next time I see a Hitchcock film. Moving on.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. ( )