Nowhere to Go but Up

A lively celebration and feminist reevaluation of Angela Lansbury’s career, personal life, and myriad achievements in film, Broadway, and television—and how this icon can inspire us to live bigger and better.

Pop culture writer Lily E. Hirsch weaves the history of the star’s most memorable roles within each chapter while exploring her approach to life, including helping other people, trying new things, tuning out naysayers, judging with empathy, processing death, aging, navigating motherhood, and much more. Discover new insights into Murder, She Wrote thanks to new research materials and interviews with some of the show’s primary players.

Readers will gain a new appreciation of Lansbury’s strength, which she displayed early on after the death of her father in London and emigration during World War II. That strength supported her tremendous talent as she found work in the United States as an actress, first in film and then on Broadway and television. Lansbury would also raise a family and advocate for a healthy lifestyle and positive perspective with her fitness video and book Positive Moves. Along the way, Hirsch provides fun facts, a Lansbury-based personality quiz, a weekly horoscope from the Cabot Cove Gazette, and other entertaining features.

In Mary Poppins Returns, Lansbury sings “Nowhere to Go but Up,” a song with a message that summed up Lansbury’s long career and outlook on life. With Lansbury’s help, that same message might also find a place in our lives.