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The hitherto unpublished Dirk Bogarde - the best of his marvellous letters.
'Biographies only tend to be definitive until the next one comes along, but there's no danger of Coldstream's erudite, moving analysis ever being superseded' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY. As an actor Dirk Bogarde was a Rank contract artist and matinee idol who became a giant of the intellectual cinema, working on films such as Death in Venice, The Servant and Providence. Fiercely protective of his privacy, and that of his partner of 40 years, he left England in the 1960s to live abroad, where he carved a second career for himself as a bestselling author. Although Bogarde destroyed many of his papers, John Coldstream has had unique access to his personal archives and to friends and family who knew him well. The result is a fascinating biography of a complex and intriguing personality.
English actor Dirk Bogarde dominated the films in which he starred. Exploring the tension between his matinee idol appeal and his own closeted sexuality, this book focuses on the wide variety of genres in which he worked, and the highly charged interaction between his life and his roles. Beginning with an expose of gay life in post-war Britain and his relationship with partner/manager, Anthony Forwood, each chapter explores Bogarde's performances by genre--his juvenile delinquent movies, his military roles, his contribution to Basil Dearden's overtly gay thriller Victim (1961), and his "outsider" roles in such films as The Servant (1963), The Fixer (1968) and Despair (1978). Bogarde's "camp" cinema, espionage thrillers and various roles as artists are also examined, along with the misogyny of the Doctor films and his later television work.
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______________ 'Desperately moving' - The Daily Telegraph First published in 1986, Backcloth is volume four of Dirk Bogarde's best-selling memoirs Filling the gaps left between his previous memoirs, as well as highlighting new episodes, Backcloth explores the patterns of pleasure and pain that have made up Bogarde's extraordinary life. Based on personal letters, notebooks and diaries and covering many aspects of a celebrated life, we share experiences from his family home in Hampstead through to his farmhouse retreat in Provence. This memoir highlights the people, emotions and experiences that made him into the man loved by so many. Written with all the honesty, wit and intelligence that made Bogarde such a popular writer, Backcloth is both eloquent and touching.
______________ First published in 1977, A Postillion Struck by Lightning is volume one of Dirk Bogarde's best-selling memoirs. Following Bogarde from childhood through adolescence, to the beginnings of his budding career, A Postillion Struck by Lightning is a heartfelt memoir, offering insight into what created the drive and charisma that eventually made him a star. Dreamy, sun-soaked summers full of freedom spent with his younger sister are mixed with holidays in France and rambling the countryside. Writing plays instead of playing sports, Dirk's talents lay in the creativity of painting and expression rather than in the precision of maths or science, much to the growing concern of his parents. Packed off to live with relatives in Scotland, his father hoped that a proper Scottish education would equip his son to follow in his footsteps for a career in Newspapers. In Scotland, Dirk learned to defend himself, to sound like a native Glaswegian, and to hide his intense homesickness. In essence; he learned to act.
First published in 1978, Snakes and Ladders is volume two of Dirk Bogarde's best-selling memoirs Snakes and Ladders follows Bogarde from the challenges of his army training camp at Catterick, through the horrors of war, to his glittering – if often trying – film career. We see the thoughtful boy finding his way alongside his fellow recruits, to emerge from the war a thoughtful man, shaped in many ways by his harrowing experiences. Somewhat falling into his career, Dirk struggled with the demands that such great success brings with it. With personal insight into his close friendship with Judy Garland, his working method with Visconti, and his many vital relationships with friends and family, Snakes and Ladders sheds an honest and not always flattering light on his life.