Details of Publication - Apex Publishing Ltd.

When Harry Met Sheila: The Autobiography of Sheila Steafel
	Author: Sheila Steafel Foreword by: Claire Rayner OBE Classification: Autobiography/Television Sorry this book is Out Of Print	Brief Description: When Harry Met Sheila is the story of highly acclaimed comedy actress, Sheila Steafel, her relationship with Steptoe and Son actor Harry H. Corbett and how a woman, who should have had the world at her feet, ultimately destroyed her marriage and promising career. Sheila’s autobiography is a brave and honest account by an actress who was once crowned ‘The Queen of Comedy’, in which she explores how the traumas of her childhood; growing up in a dysfunctional family in apartheid-torn South Africa in the 1930s and ‘40s have impacted her personal life and career. This book also provides a fascinating insight into the world of the entertainment industry and shows how easy it is for the dreams and aspirations of those in the business to fall by the wayside. It will appeal to anyone interested in the human condition and demonstrates the huge impact that childhood experiences have on our adult lives. When Harry Met Sheila is a powerful story about one woman’s journey of self discovery and her struggle to finally let go of the demons of the past.

Special Note: This book is now out of print.

About the Author: Sheila Steafel was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1935, into a highly talented but dysfunctional family. In spite of a difficult and unhappy childhood, Sheila discovered she had a talent for comedy and from a young age was determined to pursue a career in entertainment.
At the age of 16, Sheila moved to London to study drama and built up a reputation as an accomplished comedy actress. During her career, Shelia has appeared in numerous popular television series including The Frost Report, Minder, The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Holby City, Doctors and Not Only But Also with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. She also has several film roles to her credit.
Sheila was possibly best known as 'Miss Popsy Wopsy' in the BBC One old-time music hall programme The Good Old Days but her many critically acclaimed performances include her portrayal of Mistress Quickly in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Merry Wives of Windsor, Billy Liar, playing opposite Tom Courtney, How the Other Half Lives with Robert Morley, A Day in Hollywood A Night in the Ukraine in the highly acclaimed role of Harpo and the 2007 Chichester Festival Theatre Production of Funny Girl as Rosie Bryce. Sheila has also toured extensively, both in the UK and overseas, with her successful one woman shows; Steafel Solo, Victoria Plums which is also available on CD, and Steafel XPosed.
Sheila married Harry H. Corbett of Steptoe and Son fame in October 1958 but the traumas of her childhood cast a shadow over the relationship and the couple were divorced in August 1964. Sheila’s troubled past also began to adversely affect her career which ultimately failed to live up to its early promise.
Sheila resides in Britain where she has lived for all of her adult life.

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Information Reviews by the
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Comments Signings and
Events Libraries that
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-- Purchasing Information

	Paperback	Hardback
Publication Date:		16 October 2010
ISBN: ISBN 13:		1-906358-83-4 978-1-906358-83-9
Page Extent:		310
Book Size:
Price:		£12.99
P & P (UK):		£2.50
P & P (Europe):		£4.20
P & P (World):		£6.00
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Price (USD):		$25.95
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Publication Date:	16 October 2010
Digital eBook ISBN 13:	978-1-907792-44-1
Digital pdf ISBN 13:	978-1-908382-76-4


	Based on Amazon's Kindle Store

-- Reviews by the Famous and well Known

A lovely book. It packs quite a punch: it's human, humane, funny, sad, wise, witty, wonderfully self-aware - I enjoyed it hugely.
Gyles Brandreth, Writer, Broadcaster and Former Conservative MP

Congratulations! I started reading it Friday evening until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Continued most of Saturday and finished it Sunday at around 6.45 pm. I didn’t want to leave it alone; I was so immersed in Sheila’s world and Sheila’s life. It’s a fine piece of writing and a compelling autobiography. Honest and sad. Sadness pervades every aspect of it, and in between were the stories of her failures and the sad deaths of lovers and friends. Somehow she wove backwards and forwards in time, seamlessly, and managed the swings between modesty and self-congratulation with great subtlety. I feel I know her a little better now and wished we had worked more together.
Sir Arnold Wesker, Author and Playwright

The first time I saw Sheila Steafel perform live was at the dress rehearsal of a Charity Show being put together at a big West End theatre under the title ‘Night of a Hundred Stars’ in which I, for my sins, was doing a send-up of myself as an agony aunt. I knew her face from various films and TV shows in which she had appeared but had never seen her acting ’on foot’.
This is a term created in our family by one of my sons who, at the age of four, expressed an ambition to be an actor. ‘What kind of actor?’ his father---himself once in the business---wanted to know. ‘A foot actor’ the little one said. And when asked to explain what that meant he told us with some asperity, because of course we should have known, ’Well, there are actors on films and actors on television and actors on foot and. they’re the best kind---’
Seeing Sheila on stage was a revelation. Her audience was just the rest of the cast---quite a lot of us, in fact---and from the moment she came on stage dressed as a very young ballerina and began to sing a woebegone song about the misery of always being cast as one of the cygnets in ‘Swan Lake’ and how dancing the part caused ‘---sweaty wings and other things---‘ we were convulsed with laughter. Her timing, her ability to use the smallest movements of her body to express the little swan’s feelings, her musicality which makes her voice a delight to listen to, were all great gifts which she used with consummate artistry. Here was a true clown---using the word in its best possible meaning. She was a joy, and as far as I was concerned, the best act in the show which I have to tell you included some very big names, even, I seem to remember a somewhat aged Hollywood star.
So, when she phoned me and told me she had written her autobiography and would I write the forward to it, of course I said yes. I’m her most devoted fan and always will be. But I can’t deny I was anxious. There are many people who are superb performers but the most dire of writers.
I’ve accepted invitations like this one before from old friends and then had to struggle to come up with some sort of anodyne comments that aren’t exactly lies, but aren’t really true either. And I didn’t want to have to do that for Sheila, and prayed that some of her theatrical talent had drifted into her ability to write.
And then the manuscript arrived and I put it in front of me on my desk and thought---well, I’ll have a quick look before I get to Chapter Fourteen of the book I’m writing at present and have a quick riffle through to see what Sheila has done.
I didn’t get to Chapter Fourteen that day, or the next. This is a marvellous book, an un-put-down-able story and an honest account of what life on foot, and elsewhere in the toughest of businesses, is really about. These days there has to be lots of TV and film acting, plus voice-overs for commercials and, to my personal delight, reading novels to make audio books for blind people too, to make a successful career; and I take especial. pleasure in the fact that Sheila read the texts of my six volume series ‘The Poppy Chronicles’ Is that a plug? Yer darn tootin’ it is---for both of us.
I must be mad to say this, for heaven knows the literary world at every level, whether you write Booker prize winners or ‘bodice rippers’---as a particular type of erotic pop reading is known in the trade---is crowded enough; it can be as difficult for would-be writers to get a foot on the first rung of the ladder to a career that actually earns a living, as it is for actors, and we all know how tough that is.
But I’m going to say it. Sheila Steafel can tell a story and tell it well. Her next book---and of course there must be a next book’---should be a novel. And I for one will be panting to get my hands on it.
Claire Rayner OBE, Journalist and Agony Aunt - Written the Foreword

-- Newspaper and Website Reviews

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
Enfield Independent

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
Sandwell Chronicle

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
Romford Recorder

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
Tenby Observer

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
The Brit (Madeira Newspaper)

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
Ipswich 24 Magazine

A heart-warming, touching and wickedly funny account of the author's gravitation towards acting. Not to be missed.
Mike Hallowell, The Shields Gazette

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
The Beat

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
Daily Star Sunday (Take 5 Magazine)

WHEN HARRY MET SHEILA
Ilford Recorder

SHEILA STEAFEL BOOK SIGNING CANCELLED
A book signing by a star of BBC One’s The Good Old Days and ex-wife of Harry Corbett in Bracknell tomorrow has been cancelled.
Sheila Steafel was due to sign copies of her book, When Harry Met Sheila: The Autobiography of Sheila Steafel at Waterstone’s in Charles Square, on Saturday.
Sheila was best known as Miss Popsy Wopsy on the BBC One old-time music hall programme The Good Old Days.
She married Harry H Corbett of Steptoe and Son fame in October 1958, but the traumas of her childhood cast a shadow over the relationship and the couple divorced in August 1964.
The book includes a foreword by agony aunt Claire Rayner OBE, who died recently, and charts Sheila’s acting career, which has included appearances on Holby City and Minder.
Bracknell Forest Standard

-- Radio and TV

7 August 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Bristol Community Radio 93.2 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Bristol Community Radio 93.2 FM

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26 September 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Radio Six International. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Radio Six International

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27 September 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Jersey 88.8 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Jersey 88.8 FM

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27 September 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Wythenshawe 97.2 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Wythenshawe 97.2 FM

27 September 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Hospital Radio Plymouth. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Hospital Radio Plymouth

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29 September 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Leith 98.8 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Leith 98.8 FM

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Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Pure 107.8 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Pure 107.8 FM

4 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Merseyside 95.8 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Merseyside 95.8 FM

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5 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Essex 103.5 & 95.3 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Essex 103.5 & 95.3 FM

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7 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Derbyshire 104.5 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Derbyshire 104.5 FM

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7 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Manchester 95.1 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Manchester 95.1 FM

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11 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Express 93.7 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Express 93.7 FM

12 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Essex 103.5 & 95.3 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Essex 103.5 & 95.3 FM

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14 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Devon 103.4 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Devon 103.4 FM

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14 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Kent 96.7 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Kent 96.7 FM

18 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Pulse Radio 98.4 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Pulse Radio 98.4 FM

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19 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Manx Radio 97.2 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Manx Radio 97.2 FM

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20 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio 4. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio 4

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21 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Lionheart Radio 107.3 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Lionheart Radio 107.3 FM

21 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Angel Radio 101.1 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Angel Radio 101.1 FM

A page-turner.
Janice Forsyth, BBC Radio Scotland 92.4 FM (Presenter)

28 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Radio Clyde 2 1152 AM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Radio Clyde 2 1152 AM

31 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Kent 96.7 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Kent 96.7 FM

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6 November 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland 92.4 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Scotland 92.4 FM

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28 November 2010 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Your Thurrock. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Your Thurrock

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20 January 2011 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on Penwith Radio. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
Penwith Radio

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28 January 2011 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Solent 96.1 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Solent 96.1 FM

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12 February 2011 - Sheila Steafel was interviewed on BBC Radio Leicester 104.9 FM. Sheila answered questions about her book 'When Harry Met Sheila'.
BBC Radio Leicester 104.9 FM

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-- Readers Comments

I've read a lot of showbiz autobiographies, but never has one affected me or produced so many emotions in me. Every page produced another emotion, from “that’s interesting” to “oh I never knew that” to laughing out loud, to surprise, to nodding with empathy to jaw dropping shock, to a lump in the throat to tears in the eyes.
Sheila's life has really been one of loss and missed opportunities. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong men, saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, just when a brilliant career opportunity came along something else popped up to stop it happening.
Her parents who hated each other so much yet stayed together all their lives definitely made their mark on her life. The reunion with her brother shortly before he died brought tears to my eyes.
She really should be up there with the likes of June Whitfield, Joanna Lumley and the late Thora Hird in the Nations eyes and affections, an icon of acting, as she is as good, if not, a better actress than them, but sheer bad luck prevented that.
The book is a real page turner. I said to myself I'd read just one more chapter before going to bed, well ten chapters later I was still reading.
For anyone interested in show business, relationships or families this book is a must read.
Sean Davies
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An honest and lovely book to read, I really enjoyed it. I couldn’t put the book down, she really is a remarkable lady and she’s appeared in so many things. I hope she writes another book. Fantastic!
Christine King
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A very honest account of the life of a very talented comedy actress. A doomed and tragic love affair and a fascinating insight into the personality, never before revealed of Harry H. Corbett of Steptoe & Son fame. I found this book a very interesting read.
Mick Davis
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-- Book Signings and Events

16 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Amersham.
Waterstone's, Amersham

16 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Aylesbury.
Waterstone's, Aylesbury

23 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone’s Harrow.
Waterstone's, Harrow

23 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, St. Albans.
Waterstone's, St. Albans

30 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Putney.
Waterstone's, Putney

30 October 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Croydon.
Waterstone's, Croydon

6 November 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Milton Keynes.
Waterstone's, Milton Keynes

6 November 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Bedford.
Waterstone's, Bedford

13 November 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Farnham.
Waterstone's, Farnham

20 November 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Brighton.
Waterstone's, Brighton

28 November 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock.
Waterstone's, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock

4 December 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Reading.
Waterstone's, Reading

11 December 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at Waterstone's, Winchester.
Waterstone's, Winchester

15 December 2010 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at The Calder Bookshop & Theatre, London.
The Calder Bookshop & Theatre, London

28 September 2011 - Sheila Steafel signed copies of her book 'When Harry Met Sheila' at the Henley Literary Festival.
Henley Literary Festival

-- Libraries that stock this book
The British Library, Boston Spa
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The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
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The University Library, Cambridge
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The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
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The Library of Trinity College, Dublin
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The Bodleian Library, Oxford
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