Judi Dench's Memoir Gets a Guardian Review, With a Warning About "National Treasure"

The Guardian reviewed Judi Dench's memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, on 28 October 2026, under a headline that asks readers not to call her a "national treasure." The Guardian review is the newest notice of the book in this story.

A memoir is a book in which someone tells the story of their own life. This one is built around a series of conversations between Dench and Brendan O'Hea, an actor and theatre director. Instead of a straight narrative, the book runs as a question-and-answer format, sorted into chapters by theme. The two have worked together before. Dench and O'Hea collaborated on Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent in 2023.

Dench, who was 91 when the Guardian review appeared, is one of Britain's best-known stage and screen actors. She played M, the head of the intelligence service, in the James Bond films. She became a film star in the 1990s, and she won an Oscar, the film industry's top award, for playing Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.

The book is published by St. Martin's Press, a US imprint of the Macmillan publishing group. Publishers Weekly credits the book to "Judi Dench, with Brendan O'Hea." Macmillan describes it as a "heartfelt and hilarious tour" of Dench's life and career.

Earlier in the month, the Telegraph also reviewed the memoir. Its headline quoted Dench saying she panics if she is left alone. The paper said the book contains plenty of mischief and humour, and that it leaves a lasting impression of a woman who is deeply unhappy in her own company.

Two reviews, two different takes on the same conversations. Readers who want to see the book for themselves can find it under its title, and the chapter-by-chapter format makes it easy to dip in and out.