Beloved actor Alan Rickman was best known for playing Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies and Harry in Love Actually.
After his death from pancreatic cancer in 2016, Rickman’s journals were discovered — journals which he had written for more than 25 years.
The diaries covered everything from acting, friendships and politics to plays he attended (“some rapturous and others scathing”). For Potter lovers, there are also scores of behind-the-scenes stories from the set of his most famous role.
According to The Guardian, there are 27 volumes of handwritten notes which will be turned into a novel in 2022 — something the actor had intended on doing before he passed away at the age 69.
Rickman began writing in the early ’90s, with every intention of publishing them, after he starred in the stage version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and in 1989’s Die Hard.
Canongate will publish the book, which has a reported title of The Diaries of Alan Rickman and will be edited by the same person, Alan Taylor, who turned the journals of Beatrix Potter, Dorothy Wordsworth and John Fowles into novels.
In an interview with The Guardian, Rima Horton, Rickman’s widow said that she was “delighted” that her husband’s words were being published.
“The diaries reveal not just Alan Rickman the actor but the real Alan – his sense of humour, his sharp observation, his craftsmanship and his devotion to the arts.”
The diaries are not only a behind-the-scenes look but are “anecdotal, indiscreet, witty, gossipy and utterly candid,” she said. “They make compulsive reading and offer a peerless insight into the daily life of a remarkable actor, who was as beloved in the U.S. as he surely was in the U.K.”
The editorial director at Canongate told The Guardian that fans of Rickman “are in for a rare treat”.
Rickman began his illustrious film career at the age of 41 after being a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1978. His role has a German terrorist in Die Hard catapulted him to stardom — a role which he scored two days after moving to LA.
Following this, he went on to star in films such as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually, as well as the Harry Potter franchise.