Book description
Rena Fruchter was Dudley's concert piano partner, and the friend who
looked after him in the final years of his life until his death at the
age of 66. This is her intimate portrait of the extraordinarily
brilliant, complex character that was Dudley Moore.
During the last ten years of his life Dudley changed. He stepped off
the podium and into real life. Physically life was difficult,
professionally it was turbulent, but during his final years he
blossomed, and in the midst of his illness from the debilitating
effects of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, he found peace.
Rena writes beautifully of Dudley's final years but also takes us
back through his life story - conveying his inimitable talent, humour
and vibrancy; evoking the atmosphere of a working-class upbringing in
1940s Britain, life in 1950s London and his relationship with Peter
Cook, and the excesses of 1980s LA. With style and precision she
unravels his personality, looks back at his childhood and career,
weaving a moving and compelling story of a unique man.
Rena Fruchter is a classical concert pianist and one-time music
journalist. She toured with Dudley Moore and also recorded several
classical albums with him. In the last decade of his life she became his
closest friend and confidante, and it was in Rena and her family's care
that Dudley spent his last months.
