Taking her art seriously,not herself

“It’s as if I was wearing those woolly snail tights 10 minutes ago,” said Dench,now 76. “I don’t have a good memory for routine things—like that I have to go out and buy,you know,some bacon and a belt. But I do have a good memory for my friends and the things I’ve done.”

That steel trap,along with Dench’s sense of humour,is on full display in a new book,And Furthermore,that chronicles her 54-year career. The book,starts at the beginning,in 1957,when Dench was cast as Ophelia in an Old Vic production of Hamlet. From there it proceeds production by production through 2010,sharing memories good and bad,along with a bit of life advice.

Dench refused to label And Furthermore an autobiography or memoir. “I hasten to add this is not the final word,” Dench writes in the preface,noting that she plans to keep on working “right to the end.”

At an age when most people are slowing down,Dench seems to have energy to spare. In recent days she has created a stir at the Four Seasons Hotel here just by swimming laps in the pool. She arrived in Los Angeles on February 2 to work on Clint Eastwood’s next film,a biopic of J. Edgar Hoover,after nine weeks in India shooting The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,about a group of British retirees.

She will pop up in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in May,guest star in the London production of the musical Sondheim on Sondheim later this year and reprise her role as the prickly intelligence chief M in the next James Bond movie. First,however,she returns to movie theatres in March in a new production of Jane Eyre (She plays Mrs Fairfax,Rochester’s housekeeper.)

“What is the percentage of people doing the job they absolutely love in this world?” she asked. “Two per cent? Three? Surely not more. I don’t want to rest.” She added: “It’s like putting a car in a garage. It’s hard to get it started after that.”

Even so,Dench very nearly didn’t go to India because she was “rather fearful” of travelling to a developing country. She pointed to a passage in And Furthermore to explain her reluctance. A trip to West Africa with a repertory group early in her career ended with her getting malaria.

Awards also try her nerves. Don’t get her wrong,she loves receiving them— particularly her Oscar,which she won for her brief portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love (1998). But Oscar campaigns and the long lead-up to the ceremony leave Dench,who has been nominated six times,more than a little cold.

“By the end you’re absolutely cross-eyed,” she said. “You can’t really award prizes for acting anyway. Acting is such a personal,imperfect kind of art.”

And Furthermore will disappoint fans who want a peek at Dench’s personal life. It’s strictly off-limits. But readers will walk away with a keen sense of her philosophy on life: take your art seriously but never yourself. Dench recounted a get-over-yourself moment in 1986,when a London theatre was named after her. The announcer at the naming ceremony gave her this introduction: “Here she is! Judy Geeson.” (Geeson is a British actress.)

“It’s very good for you to have things like that happen,” she said stretched out on the Four Seasons sofa. “Don’t presume that you are so special that mistakes can’t happen to you.” Brooks Barnes