|
books
| book details |
Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor
By (author) Roger Lewis
|
| on special |
normal price: R 345.95
Price: R 327.95
|
| book description |
'The book of the year' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of the very best biographies I have ever read' STEPHEN FRY 'A hot thunderstorm of a book' DAVID HARE 'I've never read anything like it!' RICHARD E GRANT 'Erotic Vagrancy gave me a week of pure joy' CRAIG BROWN 'Unputdownable' TONY PALMER 'A genius writer' LYNN BARBER 'ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE . . . ONE OF THE GREAT READING EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE' MARINA HYDE A TOP 25 BEST BOOK OF 2023 (INDEPENDENT) Thirteen years in the writing, Erotic Vagrancy doesn't only surpass every other biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton yet to appear, this rich, vital and passionately articulated book, which is as extravagant and wayward as its two subjects, is also about celebrity, creativity, being flawed, being brilliant, sexuality, the intermingling of a low and a highbrow existence, pride, insecurity, attraction and repulsion, and devilry. We see Taylor the child actress exchanging dogs and horses for husbands. We see Burton emerging from the mists and brimstone of Wales to be the greatest theatrical animal of his generation. The pair come together in Rome during the making of Cleopatra, which gives Lewis the opportunity for a major farcical set-piece. We then enter a world of jewels and private jets, vodka, yachts and furs - the splendid vulgarity of the Sixties, where the narrative of Taylor and Burton becomes a Pop Art story. Then, inevitably, it all goes wrong, with alcoholism, violence, recrimination and divorce ( twice ) - with Burton, whom Lewis depicts as a Faustus figure, damned by fame, dead at fifty-eight. Stephen Fry has said, 'It is one of the very best biographies I have ever read. One of the best books about fame, desire, Hollywood and mid-to-late twentieth century culture ever written. Inside which, brilliant, hilarious and sensitive insights on all manner of subjects fizz and froth. Magnificent, terrible, tragic, triumphant.'
| product details |
Normally shipped |
Publisher | Quercus Publishing
Published date | 4 Jul 2024
Language |
Format | Paperback / softback
Pages | 656
Dimensions | 198 x 128 x 34mm (L x W x H)
Weight | 460g
ISBN | 978-0-8573-8174-3
Readership Age |
BISAC | biography & autobiography / entertainment & performing arts
| other options |
Normally shipped |
Readership Age |
Normal Price | R 442.95
Price | R 420.95
| on special |
Normally shipped |
Readership Age |
Normal Price | R 702.95
Price | R 667.95
| on special |
|
|
|
To view the items in your trolley please sign in.
| sign in |
|
|
| specials |
|
Our moment has seen the resurgence of an anarchist sensibility, from the uprisings in Seattle in 1999 to the Occupy movement of 2011.
|
|
Carl Morrow
Paperback / softback
160 pages
was: R 320.95
now: R 288.95
|
In this uniquely Southern African book, Carl Morrow and Keith Kirsten guide readers step by step into the magical realms of bonsai as a hobby, horticultural practice and art form.
|
|
André Alexis
Paperback / softback
176 pages
was: R 280.95
now: R 252.95
|
A pack of dogs are granted the power of human thought - but what will it do to them? A surprising and insightful look at the beauty and perils of consciousness.
|
|
|
|