EIGHT MANUSCRIPT BOOKS - THE SIGNATURE SERIES 06/88
In collaboration with the Barbican Centre we asked British actor Tom Wilkinson and 16 friends to sign n.06 of the Eight Manuscript Books Series produced in a limited edition of 88 copies.
THE EIGHT MANUSCRIPT BOOKS SERIES
This series has been developed through meticulous scrutiny and research, to give new life to traditional bookbinding techniques.
Specially commissioned end-papers have been individually hand-painted so that no two books will ever be exactly alike. The signature grey writing paper that distinguish Inhedited's manuscripts is a premium stock selected for its smooth, uncoated texture which offers an optimal writing experience, while page numbers and table of content allow to record and order the words carefully.
These manuscript books are bound in first grade leather. The look, scent and feel of this material are the inimitable elements that make it so praised by connoisseurs world-wide.
The golden diagonal line that emerges when you stack your complete series is the distinctive marker of extraordinary craftsmanship. Each book in this series has thus been individually gilded by our specialists in London to allow you to enjoy this exclusive effect.
These Eight Manuscript Books belong together and transcend the book form to become an iconic sculptural object.
EMMA THOMPSON
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and writer.
In 1992, Thompson won an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for the period drama, Howards End. In 1993, she garnered dual Academy Award nominations for her roles in The Remains of the Day as a stately housekeeper, and In the Name of the Father as a lawyer. Thompson scripted and starred in Sense and Sensibility (1995), which earned her (among other awards) an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress. Other notable film and television credits include: the Harry Potter film series, Wit (2001), Love Actually (2003), Angels in America (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), Last Chance Harvey (2008), Men in Black 3 (2012), and Brave (2012). In 2013, she received acclaim and several award nominations for her portrayal of P. L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks.
COLIN FIRTH
Colin Firth is an actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2011 for the film The King's Speech.
Born in England in 1960, Colin Firth made his film debut in Another Countryin 1984, later taking several roles on television miniseries and movies. In 1996, Firth appeared in Shakespeare in Love, which went on to great acclaim. He starred in several box office successes, including Bridget Jones’ Diary and Love Actually before finding more acclaim in 2009’s A Single Man and winning an Oscar for his role in The King’s Speech.
BILL NIGHY
William Francis "Bill" Nighy is a British actor. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womaniser Prof. Mark Carleton.
Nighy became known for his performance in Love Actually. Other notable roles in cinema include his portrayal of Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and its sequel, as well as Viktor in the Underworld film series.
He is also known for his roles in the films Lawless Heart, I Capture the Castle, Shaun of the Dead, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Notes on a Scandal, Hot Fuzz, Valkyrie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Rango and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. His performances were also acclaimed in the State of Play series and in the TV films The Girl in the Café, Gideon's Daughter and Page Eight, for which he earned Golden Globe nominations, winning one for Gideon's Daughter.
CELIA IMRIE
Celia Diana Savile Imrie is a British actress. She is known for her appearances with Victoria Wood; including Claire in Pat and Margaret (1994), Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies (1998–2000) and playing various characters in the sketch show Victoria Wood As Seen On TV (1985–87), including Miss Babs in the spoof soap opera sketches Acorn Antiques. She reprised the role of Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques: The Musical! in 2005, and won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical.
Imrie's other television roles include Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac (1983), Diana Neal in After You've Gone (2007–08), Gloria Millington in Kingdom(2007–09), and Miss Kizlet in the 2013 Doctor Who season opener The Bells of Saint John. Her film appearances include Highlander (1986), Hilary and Jackie (1998), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Calendar Girls (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Imagine Me & You (2005), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015). She has been described as "one of the most successful British actresses of recent decades".
ANDY SERKIS
Andrew Clement "Andy" Serkis is a British film actor, director and author. He is best known for his performance captureroles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for such computer-generated characters as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), King Kong in the eponymous 2005 film, Caesar in Rise (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Captain Haddock / Sir Francis Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Upcoming performance capture roles include Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: Episode VIII (2017), and Baloo in Jungle Book (2018).
Serkis' film work in motion capture has been critically acclaimed. He has received an Empire Award, a National Board of Review Award, two Saturn Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his motion-capture acting. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of serial killer Ian Brady in the British television film Longford (2006) and was nominated for a BAFTA for his portrayal of new wave and punk rock musician Ian Duryin the biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010). In 2015, he had a small role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Serkis has his own motion capture workshop, The Imaginarium Studios in London, which he will use for his directorial debut, Jungle Book.
RICHARD BERKELEY-STEELE
Highly regarded in the heldentenor repertoire, Richard Berkeley-Steele performs at some of the world’s most important opera houses, working with distinguished conductors and directors. Known for roles in operas by Wagner, Richard Strauss and Britten, his recent performances include Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Sir Antonio Pappano.
Recent highlights include concert performances of Tristan und Isolde for Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (under Myung-Whun Chung) and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (under Vasily Petrenko), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) for Korea National Opera and Loge in Der Ring des Nibelungen for Opera Australia. Upcoming engagements include Sir Philip Wingrave (Owen Wingrave) at the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh International festivals and for Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse.
He has sung Tristan (Tristan und Isolde) with Grange Park Opera; the title roles in Tannhäuser (with the Chinese National Opera Company in Beijing and for Opera Australia with Richard Hickox) and Lohengrin (for Teatro Massimo in Palermo under Günter Neuhold); Herod (Salome) with Deborah Voigt for Washington National Opera; Samson (Samson et Delilah) at the Teatro Municipal Sao Paulo; Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) at Opera Australia under Sir Richard Armstrong; Sir Philip Wingrave at the Royal Opera House; Laca (Jenůfa) at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and at Opéra Angers Nantes; a double bill of rarely-performed works - Sibelius’ The Maiden in the Tower and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchey the Immortal at the Buxton Festival and The Prince (Rusalka) for Opera North.
GILES COREN
Giles Coren is a British columnist and restaurant critic for The Times and has contributed to various publications including the Independent on Sunday, Tatler and GQ. He was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005. He has co-starred with Sue Perkins in Edwardian Supersize Me and The Supersizers Go series for the BBC. His first novel, Winkler, was published in 2005. Coren has been a restaurant critic for the British newspaper The Times since 1993, and was named "Food And Drink Writer of the Year" at the 2005 British Press Awards and in 2016 was named Restaurant Writer of the Year at the Fortnum and Mason Awards. As well as restaurant reviews, he also contributes a regular column to The Times, the subjects of which range from personal life to politics. Under the pseudonym Professor Gideon Garter he wrote The Intellectual's Guide to Fashion for The Sunday Times.
Coren has contributed articles to various publications including Tatler and GQ, and he is currently editor-at-large for Esquire. In November 2014, he joined Time Out as a columnist, writing weekly on city life. In 2005, he published his first novel, Winkler, reviewed in the New Statesman and The Independent. One section of the novel won the Literary Review's "Bad Sex in Fiction Award". Coren has also written two non-fiction books – the first, Anger Management (For Beginners), a compilation of columns he had written for The Times was published in 2010, and his second, How To Eat Out, was published in 2012.
FOREST WHITAKER
Forest Steven Whitaker III is an American actor, director, and producer.
He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird, Platoon, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Lee Daniels' The Butler,[1][2] for his work in independent films and for his recurring role as LAPD Internal Affairs Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the Emmy Award-winning television series The Shield.[3] He is set to portray Saw Gerrera in the Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Whitaker won the Academy Award, British Academy Film Award, Golden Globe Award, National Board of Review Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and various critics groups awards for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland.
JONATHAN ROSS
Jonathan Stephen Ross is a British television and radio presenter, film critic, and actor best known for presenting the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross during the 2000s. Ross also hosted his own radio show on BBC Radio 2, and acted as a film critic and presenter of the Film programme. After leaving the BBC, Ross then began hosting a new chat show on ITV, The Jonathan Ross Show. Other regular roles have included being a regular panellist on the comedy sports quiz They Think It's All Over and being a regular presenter of the British Comedy Awards.
Ross began his television career as a programme researcher, before débuting as a television presenter for The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross on Channel 4 in 1987. Over the next decade he had several radio and television roles, many through his own production company, Channel X. In 1999, Ross took over presenting the Film programme from Barry Norman, and also began presenting his own radio show, while two years later he began hosting Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. For the chat show, Ross won three BAFTA awards for Best Entertainment Performance, in 2004, 2006 and 2007. By 2006 Ross was believed to be the BBC's highest paid star. In 2005, Ross was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to broadcasting. Ross has been involved in controversies throughout his broadcasting career. As a result, in 2008 he wrote a semi-autobiographical work titled Why Do I Say These Things?, detailing some of his life experiences.
TOM WILKINSON
Popular British character actor Tom Wilkinson active in film and television. He starred in Best Picture nominee The Full Monty (1997), and he went on to win a BAFTA for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. That same year, he was featured in Oscar and Lucinda (1997) and Wilde (1997). Wilkinson was also shown to memorable effect as a theatre financier with acting aspirations in Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Over the next few years, Wilkinson would become more popular, especially with American audiences, with such roles as General Cornwallis alongside Mel Gibson in the blockbuster The Patriot (2000) and as the grief-stricken father, Matt Fowler, in the critically acclaimed Best Picture nominee In the Bedroom (2001). For his role in that movie, he received a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Since then, Wilkinson has made memorable appearances in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Batman Begins (2005), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Valkyrie (2008), Duplicity (2009), The Ghost Writer (2010), The Debt (2010) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), among others. Wilkinson also received his second Academy Award nomination for his acclaimed role in Michael Clayton (2007).
Wilkinson won an Emmy Award for his work as Benjamin Franklin in HBO's John Adams(2008) mini-series. The same year, he received an Emmy nomination for his role in HBO movie Recount (2008), and has also received Emmy nominations for Normal (2003) and The Kennedys (2011).
WILLIAM BOYD
William Boyd has received world-wide acclaim for his novels. They are: A Good Man in Africa (1981, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize) An Ice Cream War (1982, shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize and winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Stars and Bars (1984), The New Confessions (1987), Brazzaville Beach(1990, winner of the McVitie Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize) The Blue Afternoon (1993, winner of the 1993 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, 1995), Armadillo (1998) and Any Human Heart (2002, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet). His novels and stories have been published around the world and have been translated into over thirty languages. He is also the author of a collection of screenplays and a memoir of his schooldays, School Ties (1985); and three collections of short stories: On the Yankee Station (1981), The Destiny of Nathalie 'X' (1995) and Fascination (2004). He also wrote the speculative memoir of his schooldays, School Ties (1985); three collections of short stories: On the Yankee Station (1981), The Destiny of Nathalie 'X' (1995) and Fascination (2004). He also wrote the speculative memoir Nat Tate: an American Artist -- the publication of which, in the spring of 1998, caused something of a stir on both sides of the Atlantic. A collection of his non-fiction writings, 1978-2004, entitled Bamboo, was published in October 2005. His ninth novel, Restless, was published in September 2006 (Costa Book Award, Novel of the Year 2006) and his tenth novel, Ordinary Thunderstorms, published September 2009. His most recent novel is Waiting For Sunrise which published in February 2011.
IMELDA STAUNTON
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton is a British stage and screen actress. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in the 1970s before appearing in seasons at various theatres in the UK.
Staunton has since performed in a variety of plays and musicals in London, winning four Olivier Awards; three for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles as the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods (1991), Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (2013) and Mama Rose in Gypsy (2016), and one for Best Supporting Performance for her work in both A Chorus of Disapproval (1985) and The Corn is Green (1985). Her appearances on stage in The Beggar's Opera (1982), The Wizard of Oz (1987), Uncle Vanya (1988), Guys and Dolls (1996), Entertaining Mr Sloane (2009) and Good People(2014) also earned her Olivier nominations. Staunton has been nominated for a total of 11 Olivier Awards.
Staunton drew critical acclaim for the title role in the 2004 film Vera Drake, for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup for Best Actress in addition to being nominated for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Her other film roles include Mrs. Blatherwick in Nanny McPhee (2005), Dolores Jane Umbridge in two of the Harry Potter films (2007–2010) and Hefina Headon in Pride (2014), for which she received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
SUSAN BULLOCK
Susan Margaret Bullock is a British soprano. She has performed dramatic soprano parts at major opera houses, and also sung in concert and recital.
She developed an international career as she moved increasingly into late-Romantic and 20th Century German opera repertoire, with engagements at the Frankfurt Opera and Garsington Opera, where she sang Helen in the first British performance of Richard Strauss' Die ägyptische Helena in 1998. Her assumption of Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in productions at Opera North, Leeds and the English National Opera confirmed her command of the dramatic soprano repertoire. She sang Brunnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen first in Tokyo, and in 2007 performed the role in the first complete Ring cycle by the Canadian Opera Company in their new Toronto opera house.
She made her debut at both La Scala, Milan and the Metropolitan Opera, New York in the title role of Richard Strauss' Elektra. In 2009, she received the Royal Philharmonic Society's award for best singer for her assumption of Elektra in a production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She had made her Covent Garden debut previously as Marie in Berg's Wozzeck.
She sang Brunnhilde in all performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen at Covent Garden in the London Olympic Year, Autumn 2012. She was the solo soprano at the 2011 Last Night of the Proms on 10 September 2011, performing Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene from Act 3 of Götterdämmerung in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, as well as the traditional Rule, Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory.
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to opera.
DEREK JACOBI
Sir Derek George Jacobi is a British actor and stage director.
A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He has twice been awarded a Laurence Olivier Award, first for his performance of the eponymous hero in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1983 and the second for his Malvolio in Twelfth Night in 2009. He also received a Tony Award for his performance in Much Ado About Nothing in 1984 and a Primetime Emmy Award in 1988 for The Tenth Man. His stage work includes playing Octavius Caesar, Edward II, Richard III and Thomas Becket.
In addition to being a founder member of the Royal National Theatre and winning several prestigious theatre awards, Jacobi has also enjoyed a successful television career, starring in the critically praised adaptation of Robert Graves's I, Claudius (1976), for which he won a BAFTA; in the titular role in the medieval drama series Cadfael (1994–1998), as Stanley Baldwin in The Gathering Storm (2002), as Stuart Bixby in the ITV comedy Vicious (2013–2016) and as Alan Buttershaw in Last Tango in Halifax (2012–present).
Though principally a stage actor, Jacobi has appeared in a number of films, including The Day of the Jackal (1973), Henry V (1989), Dead Again(1991), Gladiator (2000), Gosford Park (2001), The Riddle (2007), The King's Speech (2010), My Week with Marilyn (2011), and Cinderella (2015).
He holds a British knighthood and has been appointed a Knight First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog.
JIM CARTER
James Edward "Jim" Carter is a British actor.
Carter's film credits include Top Secret! (1984), A Month in the Country (1987), A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1992), The Madness of King George (1994), Richard III (1995), Brassed Off (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Little Vampire (2000), Ella Enchanted (2004), and Detective Victor Getz in The Thief Lord (2006). He plays John Faa in The Golden Compass (2007), the first film in the adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy, and also stars in House of 9 (2005) as The Watcher, and the executioner in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. The head chef in "The Witches" (1990).
His television credits include Lipstick on Your Collar (1993), Cracker, (1994), The Way We Live Now (2001), The Singing Detective (1986), Arabian Nights (2000), The Chest (1997), Red Riding (2009), A Very British Coup (1988) and the Hornblower episode "Duty" (2003) and in Midsomer Murders(2004) episode "The Fisher King" as Nathan Green. He also plays Captain Brown in the five-part BBC series Cranford (2007) and Mayor Waldo in the US miniseries Dinotopia (2002). His best known role is in Downton Abbey (2010-2015) playing Mr Carson, a role that has earned him four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2012-2015).
GILLIAN ANDERSON
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American-British film, television and theatre actress, activist and writer. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the long-running and widely popular series The X-Files, ill-fated socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies' film The House of Mirth (2000), and Lady Dedlock in the successful BBC production of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. Among other honours, Anderson has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
After beginning her career on stage, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully on the American sci-fi drama series The X-Files for all ten seasons (1993–2002, 2016). Her film work includes the dramas The Mighty Celt (2005), The Last King of Scotland(2006), Shadow Dancer (2012) and two X-Files films: The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008). Other notable television credits include: Any Human Heart, The Crimson Petal and the White, portraying Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (2011) and Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier on Hannibal. In 2013, Anderson began starring as DSI Stella Gibson on the critically acclaimed BBC crime drama television series The Fall. She has been serving as an executive producer from its second series. She will be appearing as goddess Media in the upcoming TV series American Gods. Anderson is the co-writer of The EarthEnd Saga novel trilogy.
Aside from film and TV, Anderson has taken on the stage and received both awards and critical acclaim. Her stage work includes Absent Friends(1991) – for which she won a Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer, A Doll's House (2009) – that earned her a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, and a portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (2014, 2016) – for which she won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress and received her second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
