Female Stars of British Cinema

Melanie Williams is Reader in Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia. Her publications include the monographs David Lean (2014) and Female Stars of British Cinema (2017) and the co-edited collections British Women’s Cinema (2009) and Ealing Revisited (2012).

• List of figuresAcknowledgements1. Introduction: questions of female stardom in British cinema 2. ‘A girl appears in camiknickers’: Jean Kent’s austerity stardom3. ‘Blonde glamour machine’: Diana Dors in the 1950s and beyond4. British new waif: Rita Tushingham and sixties female stardom5. ‘A constant threat’: Glenda Jackson and the challenges of seventies stardom6. ‘From schoolgirl to stardom’: the discovery and development of Helena Bonham Carter and Emily Lloyd in the 1980s and 1990s7. National treasure: Judi Dench and older female stardom into the 2000s8. Conclusion: the unbearable whiteness of being (a female British star)Bibliography

This book’s sharp analysis of seven carefully-chosen British female stars is fully attendant to issues of class, celebrity, femininity and nation. Concentrating on women with long careers as well as those which were cut short by prevalent difficulties and obstacles, the book develops many pertinent insights about the formulation and impact of diverse star personae in a British context. It is essential reading for those interested in British cinema and in film stardom more generally.