For more than 40 years Fleet Street columnist, biographer and novelist Graham Lord met dozens of famous writers, actors, politicians and other assorted celebrities, and here he describes the most fascinating:
* Writers such as Kingsley Amis, Jeffrey Archer, John Betjeman, Roald Dahl, Monica Dickens, J. P. Donleavy, Daphne du Maurier, Paul Gallico, ‘Richard Gordon’, Graham Greene, George Macdonald Fraser, ‘John le Carré’, Nicholas Monsarrat, V. S. Naipaul, Muriel Spark, Joanna Trollope, Laurens van der Post and P. G. Wodehouse.
* Huge bestsellers like Michael Bond, Frederick Forsyth, Dick Francis, ‘James Herriot’, ‘Jack Higgins’, Arthur Hailey, Hammond Innes, Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, Peter Mayle, ‘Jean Plaidy’, Harold Robbins, Wilbur Smith and Dennis Wheatley.
* Crime writers such as Agatha Christie, P. D. James, Ngaio Marsh and Ruth Rendell.
* Film and TV stars: Lauren Bacall, Eric Morecambe, Roger Moore, Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov, Robert Wagner and Terry Wogan.
* Major politicians: ‘Rab’ Butler, Anthony Eden, Douglas Hurd, Robert Maxwell, Oswald Mosley, Enoch Powell and Ian Smith.
* Not to mention Denis Compton, Marianne Faithfull, Margot Fonteyn, Richard Ingrams, John Mortimer and the young Prince Charles.
* And during a nervous trip to the Bahamas, Lord believes he met the sinister killer who murdered the Bahamian politician and multi-millionaire tycoon Sir Harry Oakes in 1943 in one of the most bizarre, baffling, unsolved murders of all time.
The result is a portfolio of dozens of vivid, colourful, revealing portraits brightly lit by scores of anecdotes and shrewd, sometimes surprising insights. Lauren Bacall, Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, Terence Stamp and Laurens van der Post will never seem the same again.
"deliciously mischievous .. . sparkling.” The Daily Mail
* Writers such as Kingsley Amis, Jeffrey Archer, John Betjeman, Roald Dahl, Monica Dickens, J. P. Donleavy, Daphne du Maurier, Paul Gallico, ‘Richard Gordon’, Graham Greene, George Macdonald Fraser, ‘John le Carré’, Nicholas Monsarrat, V. S. Naipaul, Muriel Spark, Joanna Trollope, Laurens van der Post and P. G. Wodehouse.
* Huge bestsellers like Michael Bond, Frederick Forsyth, Dick Francis, ‘James Herriot’, ‘Jack Higgins’, Arthur Hailey, Hammond Innes, Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, Peter Mayle, ‘Jean Plaidy’, Harold Robbins, Wilbur Smith and Dennis Wheatley.
* Crime writers such as Agatha Christie, P. D. James, Ngaio Marsh and Ruth Rendell.
* Film and TV stars: Lauren Bacall, Eric Morecambe, Roger Moore, Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov, Robert Wagner and Terry Wogan.
* Major politicians: ‘Rab’ Butler, Anthony Eden, Douglas Hurd, Robert Maxwell, Oswald Mosley, Enoch Powell and Ian Smith.
* Not to mention Denis Compton, Marianne Faithfull, Margot Fonteyn, Richard Ingrams, John Mortimer and the young Prince Charles.
* And during a nervous trip to the Bahamas, Lord believes he met the sinister killer who murdered the Bahamian politician and multi-millionaire tycoon Sir Harry Oakes in 1943 in one of the most bizarre, baffling, unsolved murders of all time.
The result is a portfolio of dozens of vivid, colourful, revealing portraits brightly lit by scores of anecdotes and shrewd, sometimes surprising insights. Lauren Bacall, Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, Terence Stamp and Laurens van der Post will never seem the same again.
"deliciously mischievous .. . sparkling.” The Daily Mail
