Musical theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed how the Suffolk countryside may have saved his life.
In a candid Mail on Sunday article, the celebrated composer opened up about his early battle with depression and notions of suicide.
The 69-year-old, whose memoir, Unmasked, is published next month, said an impromptu journey to a medieval Suffolk village helped him overcome a bleak temptation.
Recalling an unsettled childhood at Westminster junior school, when he feared he may never succeed as a songwriter, Lord Lloyd-Webber said: “I got quite depressed; it’s something that possibly affects artists.
“It was one of those moments where I thought everything had got on top of me. These things are illogical.”
The future Academy Award-winner disclosed that he once stole painkillers from his parents’ bathroom cupboard and boarded an Underground train with the intention of ending his life.
“I felt very alone at the time,” he said.
“It was pretty much at the end of the line – quite literally, because I went to the end of the Central Line, but then took a bus to Lavenham.”
A short spell in a completely different environment, away from home, had a profound effect on the young Lloyd Webber.
“It sorted me out and I simply got on the train back,” he said.
“It was probably all started by the combination of not really feeling happy at home, wanting to get away from school… all that sort of thing.”
Lord Lloyd Webber also discussed another attempt on his own life in the 1960s, as well as his marriages to Sarah Hugill, Sarah Brightman, and his current wife Madeleine Gurdon – a former equestrian and Suffolk native.
In 1991, their marriage was blessed at St Botolph’s Church, in her parents’ home village of Burgh, near Woodbridge.
“When I met Madeleine it was almost like getting my life back,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
“A door has been unlocked back into a world that I’d perhaps missed in the previous years – people outside the theatre.
“There is a world outside the Tony Awards and I think that’s what Madeleine brings to me.”
Unmasked, by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is published by HarperCollins on March 8.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here