Actor, author, artist Antony Sher grew up in the sinister paradise of white South Africa with a profound sense of being an outsider. Small, weedy, Jewish and - at that time - secretly gay, he found refuge in theatre and escape to London just turned nineteen. Initially turned down by the top drama schools, he went on to create a series of triumphant stage, film and television performances and became the first actor of his generation to be knighted. In ''Beside Myself'' Sher takes us to the heart of what it is to be an actor today, describing the journeys he undertakes in order to inhabit the roles for which he is famous including ''The History Man'' (his TV breakthrough), ''Macbeth'', the ''Fool'' (to Michael Gambon's ''Lear''), ''Tamburlaine'', ''Cyrano'', ''Adolf Hitler'', ''Stanley Spencer'' and ''Richard III'', the subject of his first book, ''Year of the King''.Utterly involving and often eye-poppingly revelatory, ''Beside Myself'' will both inspire young actors and inform seasoned theatregoers. It is republished to mark Sher's 60th birthday.