Roger Lewis

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.'

Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Erotic Vagrancy

Anthony Burgess

Traces the life and career of the British actor, discusses his major roles, and depicts his complex and often difficult personality

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

A delirious yet definitive biography of the author of "A Clockwork Orange.

Reina Lewis

To what extent did white European women contribute to the imperial cultures of the second half of the nineteenth century?

Race, Femininity and Representation

Gendering Orientalism

The true story of Laurence Olivier has not been told. Roger Lewis here evaluates his relationships and motives, and takes us on a journey into the dark heart of the greatest actor of the century.

The Real Life of Laurence Olivier

My Life as it is Lived

Seasonal Suicide Notes

A Glint in the Eye

Interviewer: "On what occasions do you lie?" Anthony Burgess: "When I write, when I speak, when I sleep." He was the last great modernist. Novelist, composer, librettist, essayist, semanticist, translator, critic, Anthony Burgess's versatility and erudition found expression in more than fifty books and dozens of musical compositions, from operas, choral works and song cycles to symphonies and concertos. Here now is a kaleidoscope of a book--the culmination of twenty years of writing and research--about a man who remains best known for A Clockwork Orange, the source of Stanley Kubrick's ground breaking, mind bending and prescient film. Tracking Burgess from Manchester to Malaya to Malta to Monte Carlo, Roger Lewis assesses Burgess's struggles and uncovers the web of truth and illusion about the writer's famous antic disposition. Burgess, the author argues, was just as much a literary confidence man and prankster as a consummate wordsmith. Outrageously funny, honest and touching, Anthony Burgess explores the divisions that characterize its irascible subject and his darkly comic, bleakly beautiful world of fiction.

A Biography

Quentin A. Whitlock

This book looks at the practical steps that need to be taken to create the infrastructure for an e-learning initiative. The implications for adopting new learning strategies or delivery methods are far reaching and usually require major developmental input. The book is suitable for those responsible for managing e-learning schemes such as human resource and IT managers, managers of learning resource centtres and team leaders.

How to Plan and Manage an E-learning Programme

Updated with a new section for spring, this "cult classic" is a hilarious collection of diaries and memoirs.

Seasonal Suicide Notes: My Life as it is Lived

For some years, the biographer Roger Lewis has been entertaining his friends with a letter at Christmas, in which he records details of the joys and frustrations of his life as it is actually lived. This book is a hilarious collection of these diaries and memoirs.

Roger Lewis

Books

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