Rachael Stirling has revealed that she was compelled to pay £3,000 to secure a collection of 71 love letters written by her late mother, the actress Diana Rigg, after their owner threatened to sell them at auction. The letters, dating from the 1960s, were addressed to Rigg’s former partner, television director Philip Saville. Stirling, 49, described the man who held the letters as “mean” and said he pressured her into purchasing them during her appearance in a 2023 staging of Noël Coward’s *Private Lives* at the Donmar Warehouse in London.

According to Stirling, the vendor approached her while she was performing in the play, offering her a chance to reclaim the letters. Feeling obligated to prevent their public sale, Stirling paid half of her fee from the production to buy back the correspondence. She recounted staying up until early morning reading the letters, which she said showed her mother “in full technicolour,” revealing her as passionate, radiant, and deeply in love with Saville, whom Stirling labelled a “complete arsehole” due to his frequent disappearances and unreliability.

The letters are part of research for Stirling’s biography, *All About My Mother: A Memoir of Diana Rigg*, published last month. The book provides insight into Rigg’s life, including her candid reflections on her romantic relationships while a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the challenges she faced during her affair with Saville, who was married at the time. The correspondence reveals moments of longing, financial support from Rigg to Saville, and expressions of emotional turmoil. One letter describes an “empty bed empty bathroom empty house and forlorn me,” while another humorously mentions forbidden changes to bedsheets due to Saville’s lingering scent. Some letters contain risqué passages, highlighting the intensity of their relationship.

Stirling noted that while she was angered by the circumstances surrounding the letter acquisition, the experience was ultimately rewarding in providing a personal view of her mother’s life. She also shared anecdotes from the biography launch and related that her mother, who passed away from lung cancer in 2020, had not wanted a biography published during her lifetime. Stirling decided to proceed partly due to rumours that another author was preparing a similar work. The memoir also touches on the intimate dynamics between mother and daughter, a central theme Stirling sought to explore.

In addition to recounting her mother’s past relationships, Stirling spoke at a literature festival about Rigg’s final months living with her and Stirling’s husband, Guy Garvey, lead singer of Elbow. She recalled a humorous moment when Rigg, under the influence of steroids, made a lighthearted remark about her affection for Garvey. Stirling also revealed that on opening nights of her stage shows, she has ingested small amounts of her mother’s ashes, a ritual that began accidentally and has since helped soothe her nerves.

Diana Rigg remains an iconic figure in British theatre and film, best known for her roles in *The Avengers*, the James Bond film *On Her Majesty’s Secret Service*—in which she is the only Bond wife—and *Game of Thrones*. Stirling’s biography adds new layers to the public understanding of Rigg’s private life and relationships.