Book publisher Memoirs latest book - Never work with children or animals - Foreword by June Brown
John Stirling enjoyed a colourful career in the entertainment business, working with household names from Morecambe and Wise to the cast of Coronation Street, before giving it all up to run a donkey sanctuary in the wilds of Derbyshire. Now he has written his story, published by Memoirs Books this month.John was advised to contact Memoirs Books by his friend Dame Judi Dench after she heard a radio interview with Memoirs writer Chris Newton, who has helped John to write the book. Never work with children or animals tells of John's upbringing in a family steeped in the theatrical tradition, his education at the Italia Conti stage school and his early days as a child actor working on the BBC's Whacko!, Dixon of Dock Green and several Dickens dramatisations for television. We learn how he made his break into show business production and helped to put on pantos, stage shows and TV productions featuring some of the biggest stars of the past 50 years - The Beatles, Bob Monkhouse, Frankie Howerd, Billy Fury, Rolf Harris, Roy Hudd, Tom Jones, Tony Hancock, Dusty Springfield, Danny La Rue, Marti Caine, Ronnie Corbett and Mark Knopfler. John's life took an entirely new direction at the end of the 1980s when he and his wife Annie stepped in to rescue two abused and battered donkeys at a horse sale, where they had gone to research a TV play. The donkeys' desperate plight captured their hearts, and since that time the pair have focused all their efforts and resources on creating and managing a rural home for them, the Freshfields Donkey Sanctuary, high up in the hills of the Peak District. It is now home to 170 animals. With the help of his many theatrical friends, including June Brown (Dot Cotton from East Enders), Dame Judi Dench, Brian Blessed, Edward Fox, Patricia Hayes, Jane Lapotaire and Sir John Mills and his daughter Hayley, John set up his own charity, the Michael Elliott Trust, to manage the sanctuary and raise funds to keep it going. The book tells the fascinating story of John Stirling's half century in the entertainment business, and of how his links to the stars have helped to build a rural paradise for the donkeys he loves. A portion of the proceeds is going to the running costs of the sanctuary.ISBN 978 0 9565 102 04. Available at Memoirs Books online or all good bookstores - £12.99