Author(s): John Coldstream

Non-Fiction

Official biography of the charismatic actor and bestselling author. Dirk Bogarde was a Rank contract artist and matine idol (films such as Doctor in the House) who became a giant of the intellectual cinema, working with directors such as Losey (The Servant, Accident), Visconti (The Damned, Death in Venice) and Resnais (Providence). Fiercely protective of his privacy and that of his partner of 40 years, he left England in the 1960s to live on the Continent, where he carved a second career for himself as a bestselling autobiographer with A Postillion Struck by Lightning (1977) and as a successful novelist. In all he had 15 books to his credit, including A Particular Friendship (1989), which showed him as a copious and brilliant writer of letters. Although Bogarde destroyed many of his papers, his family has made available what remains of his personal archive to John Coldstream, former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, who knew him well in his last years and edited his final book, For the Time Being (1998). Coldstream has also made many discoveries following diligent research. The biography is published to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Bogarde's death.