For twenty-five years actors have given Simon Annand unprecedented access to photograph them in the intimacy of their dressing-rooms during the 30 minutes before curtain-up - 'the half'. This magnificent book offers not only a dazzling gallery of actors - including Anthony Hopkins, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Jim Broadbent, Jeremy Irons, Glenda Jackson, Jude Law, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Martin Sheen, Felicity Kendal, Kevin Spacey and Ralph Fiennes - but also a meditation on the mystery of the final stage of an actor's journey.

Simon Annand has been photographing theatre - from the National Theatre and the West End to the Comédie-Française and the Tricycle - for more than twenty-five years.