GET ME THE URGENT BISCUITS

(W&N £8.99) THE old French saying ‘no man is a hero to his valet’ gets a sprightly modern twist in Sweetpea Slight’s memoir of working for formidable theatrical grande dame Thelma Holt.

The pair first met in 1984 when Slight, aged 18 and still called Jane, came to London for an audition at Rada. ( Sweetpea was Thelma’s invention: Jane liked it so much that she changed the name on her passport.)

Thelma announced Jane would never make a career on the stage and dictated a letter turning down the Rada audition.

Instead Jane began as Thelma’s assistant, in charge of everything from finding a last-minute replacement for a stage armourer who’d dropped dead, to keeping an emergency supply of the ‘urgent biscuits’ of the title.

Charmingly ditzy and packed with backstage gossip, this is a poignant account of coming of age in the theatre.