Henry Holt publishers has announced it will be releasing “Madly Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman,” a collection of Rickman’s handwritten diaries, on October 18.
Rickman wrote his diaries with the intention of future publication, and by the time of his death in 2016, they totaled 27 volumes. Now, his collection has been edited into a single volume. The diaries paint a deep portrait of a renowned actor, a political activist, an avid traveler and a devoted friend.
Starting in the early ’90s and kept for the rest of his life, the diaries offer new insight into the mind of the man. All in his own inimitable voice, Rickman details the extraordinary and the ordinary with great depth and intimacy.
The introduction to the book features an entry from Kate Winslet, Rickman’s co-star in “Sense and Sensibility” and “A Little Chaos.” Rickman’s widow Rima Horton has written the afterword, chronicling life after Rickman’s last diary entry in December of 2015.
Rickman, who came to fame in the U.S. as villain Hans Gruber in “Die Hard,” has played a wide variety of characters in iconic films across many genres, including “Truly, Madly, Deeply,” “Galaxy Quest,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Love Actually” and “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” His portrayal of the complicated Professor Severus Snape in every movie of the “Harry Potter” made the British actor a household name.
Rickman died Jan. 14, 2016 in London at the age of 69. The beloved actor had been having a quiet battle with pancreatic cancer before his death.