All About My Mother
On sale
10th September 2026
Price: £25
‘A thrilling, chilling, uproarious and unputdownable account’ – The Times
An icon at twenty-seven and voted sexiest woman of all time forty years later, Diana Rigg was Emma Peel, the catsuited Avenger and 007’s only wife. She was equally unforgettable as Medea, Mother Courage, Mrs Danvers and Game of Thrones’ Queen of Thorns.
Stephen Sondheim wrote a song for her; Ted Hughes translated a play; Laurence Olivier called her ‘Tits Rigg’. She fearlessly fought for equal pay and took the Daily Mail to court for their campaign against her (winning both times). Always witty and direct, when asked what it meant to become a dame, she replied, ‘I think it means I’m not supposed to say “fuck” anymore.’
Offstage, she was a gloriously naughty, deeply loving, take-no-prisoners mother to her only child, Rachael Stirling. Little surprise that Rachael became an actress – here she shows that she is a writer too. All About My Mother is both a showstopping mother-daughter memoir and the vivid life of a legend all rolled into one.
Diana Rigg never wrote her autobiography but in this raw, vibrant and tender book, written by the person who knew her best, she lives again on the page.
An icon at twenty-seven and voted sexiest woman of all time forty years later, Diana Rigg was Emma Peel, the catsuited Avenger and 007’s only wife. She was equally unforgettable as Medea, Mother Courage, Mrs Danvers and Game of Thrones’ Queen of Thorns.
Stephen Sondheim wrote a song for her; Ted Hughes translated a play; Laurence Olivier called her ‘Tits Rigg’. She fearlessly fought for equal pay and took the Daily Mail to court for their campaign against her (winning both times). Always witty and direct, when asked what it meant to become a dame, she replied, ‘I think it means I’m not supposed to say “fuck” anymore.’
Offstage, she was a gloriously naughty, deeply loving, take-no-prisoners mother to her only child, Rachael Stirling. Little surprise that Rachael became an actress – here she shows that she is a writer too. All About My Mother is both a showstopping mother-daughter memoir and the vivid life of a legend all rolled into one.
Diana Rigg never wrote her autobiography but in this raw, vibrant and tender book, written by the person who knew her best, she lives again on the page.
Reviews
'Not many showbiz memoirs are like All About My Mother, a thrilling, chilling, uproarious and unputdownable account of Rigg by her only child and occasional co-star, Rachael Stirling...The prose has the raw and bloody streak of Olivia Laing or Lara Feigel: it is the author's experiment upon herself, a test of how clear-eyed she dares to be about her mother and the wounds she gave her.'