SOURCE: Osborne, Helen. “Between the Acts.” Spectator 273, no. 8677 (29 October 1994): 31-2.

In the following review, Osborne asserts that Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King is a “fitting memorial” for Dora Jordan.

With the severeness of a somewhat prim school-marm, Claire Tomalin warns us in the introduction to this altogether enthralling biography that there is a special tone which creeps into eulogies of actresses, presenting them as lovable wayward creatures and striking them stone dead in the process. It is an encouragement that Mrs Jordan's Profession will be no stage-struck hagiography of the best beloved and most admired comic actress of her time (1761-1816), indeed, perhaps, of any time.

Yet only a few pages on, Mrs Tomalin memorably nails Dora's elusive magic when, as a 14-year-old in Dublin, she appears in a transvestite production of Sheridan's The Duenna:

A perfect girl-boy in her...