Show me the Way (by Wendy Craig)

(Amazon UK link)

As far as I remember, I picked up the book ‘Show me the way’ by Wendy Craig at a church bookstall. I vaguely recalled the author from a TV series many years ago, and also knew her name as a Christian believer. She is in her 80s now. The blurb on the back implies that it’s autobiographical, and I was interested to know more about Wendy Craig.

What I hadn’t noticed was that the subtitle of this book is ‘An Inspirational Anthology’. It turns out to be a collection of the author’s favourite poems and hymns, each one introduced with a little bit of biography. These personal anecdotes and brief history were extremely interesting. They cover the period from the author’s childhood, through her marriage and motherhood and beyond. The book was published in 2006 when she was in her early 70s.

In a sense, it was more interesting than a normal autobiography. Too many of those written about film and TV stars go into excessive detail about the people they have worked with, and the day-to-day activity on the film set, and the places they have travelled. Wendy Craig avoids all that in this gentle book. She charts her growing faith, along with her falling away from it for a while. She mentions the time she fell in love, and a little about her husband’s encouragement.

She briefly talks about the TV shows where she became a well-known face (the one I remembered was the bittersweet ‘Butterflies’) but without any name-dropping. They are mentioned only when relevant to her ongoing story about her growing in faith, and the way her perspectives changed as she grew older.

The poems and hymns span quite a range of authors. Wendy Craig herself wrote a couple of them, and I was surprised and pleased to see one item by Adrian Plass, one of my absolute favourite Christian writers. There were other authors I had heard of, and many I hadn’t. There were a few hymns or songs I recognised, and some which I didn’t. The majority of the offerings are poetry, however. Poems really aren’t my thing, but I did read them all, and tried to understand them, though usually with little success.

I didn’t read this all in one sitting; I read about fifteen or twenty pages per day, and enjoyed very much learning a little more about someone who was evidently a kind and caring actress, always willing to try anything new but with her first commitment always being to her family.

This book is long out of print, but it's the kind of thing that turns up in charity shops and church bookstalls. Recommended as a good book to dip into, or to discover more about Wendy Craig and her faith.

Review by Sue F copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews