Dirk Bogarde

This second volume of acting great Dirk Bogarde's six volumes of autobiography appeared in 1978, only a year after "A Postillion Struck By Lightning", his first book. Where that first one ended approximately at age 18, this one begins with his induction into the army in the late 1930's. He doesn't give a date for this induction - he jumps straight into overheard dialogue on the troop train, remembered apparently verbatim from 30 years earlier. This feel continues throughout the work. It's less anecdotal than an episodic retelling of events with as much detail as he can muster, which is lots. This level of detail places you there with him, in his past, suffering fright and boredom, looking toward an unknown, enviable future.

Remember the Calloway women--Mariah, Jo, Tess and Eden? For all the readers who loved Calloway Corners--welcome back! And if you haven't been there yet, join us! Jericho. The eldest of the notorious Galloway boys has come home to visit his father, who's fresh out of prison. Not much in Galloway Corners, Louisiana, has changed. The town still considers Jericho a fist-happy troublemaker-like his dad. Only one person's keeping Jericho from leaving .... Susan. As sheriff, she knows Jericho is trouble. Sure enough-in town for less than an hour, he's already in her jail. Some people never change. Or do they? Susan no longer trusts her judgment of men-an abusive ex-husband has seen to that. But Susan's beginning to see a whole new side to Jericho. A gentle, protective side...

"A "rich, sometimes heartbreaking" (Dennis Lehane) novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald's last years in Hollywood In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack. Those last three years of Fitzgerald's life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O'Nan's gorgeously and gracefully written novel. With flashbacks to key moments from Fitzgerald's past, the story follows him as he arrives on the MGM lot, falls in love with brassy gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, begins work on The Last Tycoon, and tries to maintain a semblance of family life with the absent Zelda and daughter, Scottie. Fitzgerald's orbit of literary fame and the Golden Age of Hollywood is brought vividly to life through the novel's romantic cast of characters, from Dorothy Parker and Ernest Hemingway to Humphrey Bogart. A sympathetic and deeply personal portrait of a flawed man who never gave up in the end, even as his every wish and hope seemed thwarted, West of Sunset confirms O'Nan as "possibly our best working novelist" (Salon)"--

This third volume in Bogarde's life story for the first time includes an extensive look at the situation he'd created for himself at the point of his effective retirement from film. The first two autobiographies had been written at the French farmhouse he'd purchased and had mentioned briefly in the books, but now he tells the story about how he cut the cord from both Britain and film at the same time. Acting was not completely to be abandoned at this point; not long after the controversial lead part in "Death In Venice" (dir. Visconti), he, director Cavani and co-actress Charlotte Rampling faced obscenity charges from Italian authorities for "The Night Porter", another art film that had been in line with risks he began taking with "Victim" years earlier. Also covered are the "Providence" and "Despair" films, "Providence" involving the irrepressible John Gielgud (with whom Bogarde had worked in "Sebastian" in 1967.

"Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999) was known principally as the star of more than sixty films and a critically acclaimed author. To a privileged few, however, he was a prolific, stimulating and treasured correspondent." "Collected here, his letters represent an alternative autobiography, covering three decades. On display are the qualities familiar to those who knew the private Bogarde: acute observation, a laser-like intelligence, an easily-provoked waspishness, an aversion to the politically correct, a directness which could wound and offend, a robust compassion for the needy, a relish for the striking metaphor, and a catastrophic disdain for correct spelling and punctuation. As clouds gather over the Provencal idyll, forcing a return to London, his confidences grow more and more poignant. But the incisive humour survives."--BOOK JACKET.

Tells of his childhood on the Sussex Downs where he lived with his nanny, Lally and his sister Elizabethf_

In this book written in about 1985 and first printed in hardback in 1986, Dirk Bogarde cements his modus operandi, to write another autobiography covering the same general range of years as earlier ones, but this time using detail that he'd previously decided to withhold. This one begins with his first childhood memory and closes with the death of his original publisher and friend Norah Smallwood of the Chatto & Windus firm. He reveals more about the Provence farmhouse he restored and loves as a refuge from public life. Photographs unseen until this edition are included of his family and there are shots of him in WW2 uniform. The important thing about this volume is that Bogarde overtly intended it to be the final entry in his series, after which he might write novels (he did) but would not do any more autobiographical work (that was not to be). He went so far as to burn over 95% of his personal papers in a large bonfire on his estate after completing this book, in an effort to deny information to those he felt would misinterpret it. Fortunately, events conspired to cause Bogarde to produce four more autobiographical works plus a collection of magazine and newspaper articles (this last called "For The Time Being").

Dirk Bogarde famously did not intend to publish any more autobiographical material after his fourth such book, "Backcloth". That project ended with the destruction of much of his personal papers. When his manager died, however, Bogarde found in his effects a file copy of a book that Bogarde had intended to send to the publisher, but had decided against doing so. All of Bogarde's copies had burned in the "Backcloth" bonfire, but manager Anthony Forwood had not destroyed his copy. Reading the material again, Bogarde changed his mind and decided that the material, the collected basically unknown correspondence between he and an American librarian during his film heyday, should see publication. It serves, as some have said of other Bogarde books, like an alternate biography.

In the course of a distinguished writing career that began with his first volume of autobiography, Dirk Bogarde has written a substantial amount of journalism. These are now brought together in one volume by the book editor of the "Sunday Telegraph", John Coldstream.

The 1993 volume of his continuing autobiography series, it fleshes out the French countryside retirement life he built in Provence, growing olives and flexing writing muscles. He must then deal with the death of his manager and friend Anthony Forwood and a medically-forced return to London.