Daniel Craig: The Biography - Sarah Marshall

This is not a book which I would have gone out of my way to buy but hubby spotted this in a shop a he knows how I enjoy reading biographies so he decided to treat me. When he bought it home I was of course grateful but a bit dubious as to whether I would enjoy it or not but on looking at the back cover of the book I was hooked as there is a lovely big picture of Daniel in his famous Bond swimming trunks coming out of the sea, (yes that is very shallow of me, forgive me I am only human!)

The book has been written by Sarah Marshall not by Daniel himself so most of the book is made up of quotes from both Daniel and his friends. The book starts off with a short chapter about his upbringing and how he decided he wanted to be an actor. I would have liked to have learnt more about his childhood and how he found school and what really turned him to acting. When Daniel finished school we do find out that it was his Mom who pushed him to move to London try and get closer to the acting scene and try to get into drama college.

We very quickly move on and fast forward through his college days where he was finding bit work doing small parts in TV shows and then he seemed to have finished college. Sarah them moves on to his first major role and how he loved to be on stage, as this is where he started his acting on more of a bigger level. She tells with the use of several pages of quotes how directors and other stage actors would love to work with him as he always put his all into each role he undertook and how much his presence on stage moved them.

Daniel finally started to get offers for films which he was happy about and would always be told that ‘this film will be the making of you Daniel’ which he never believed but still took the work. Daniel only decided to do a role if he had a sense of belief in the character and thought it could work. He never took on a role for fame or money as he is quoted as saying that he would loose his love for work if he ever starts doing work just for the money. For each small film role and stage part Daniel took Sarah seems to find she has to fill about a page and a half with full details of the plot for the play and who Daniel worked with. I think this is a bit too much and at times I would find I was loosing interest in what I was reading. I think the book would have only been a quarter of the length if she would not have done this!

Finally we move on to more recent times with Daniel being chosen to play James Bond. We learn a little about the selection process and who the other possibilities were. Daniel says how he was flattered to be asked by was really unsure if he would want to take on this role or not. Despite not knowing if he had got the part or not Daniel was spending his time deciding if he really wanted all of the fame that came with playing such a famous character. But as we all know he was cast and he did take up the job offer with a contract of 3 films. We are told about all of the preparation Daniel did before filming started and how he threw himself into his job. Sarah does spend quite a few chapters taking about Daniel and James Bond and what went on during filming.

I did find it quite surprising from the start of the book how much Daniel swears, almost all of the quotes in the book from him have a least one or two swear words. I did not think this of him. I liked the fact he keeps his private life away from the papers and tries to let his daughter and girlfriend stay private and not have cameras in their faces constantly.

I did find I learnt a few things from this book but I did not like the way the majority was quotes and how Sarah spent so much time talking of the plots to each of the films he has stared in. It has been written in a straight forward way and I did find it very easy to get information from. There is a Filmography at the end of the book which details all of Daniels roles and again I think Sarah has gone over the top again as she also gives details of the Director, Writer, who released it and also the cast. Way too much info for me.

I did enjoy the 2 sections of photographs in the book but was a bit disappointed as there are only a few of Daniel in his younger days and these have been taken from larger school photos so are not very clear.

I think I would have much preferred the book to have been written by Daniel himself. This book was published by John Blake and has the hefty price tag on the inside cover of £18.99. I am so pleased to say that hubby did not pay this price, he paid the total sum of £3.00 in Wilkinsons for my copy.

I am going to say that only die hard fans of Mr Craig should really read this book, anyone else would be better off waiting for the man himself to write a book.