Playing Under the PianoPlaying Under the Piano

A moving, laugh-out-loud memoir from one of today's best-loved British actors, whose credits include Downton Abbey, Notting Hill, and Paddington. From getting his big break as Third Shepherd in the school nativity play, to navigating Highclere Castle's complex Labrador policies, to bizarre Hollywood encounters, Hugh Bonneville creates a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen. What is it like working with Judi Dench and Julia Roberts, or playing Robert De Niro's right leg, or not being Gary Oldman, twice? A naturally gifted author and uproariously funny storyteller, Bonneville also writes with poignancy about his father's dementia and of his mother, whose life in the secret service emerged only after her death. Whether telling stories of his B & H-smoking, G & T-drinking, horse-race-addicted grandmother, or working with an invisible bear with a penchant for marmalade, this is a richly entertaining memoir.