Get Your Free Audiobook

Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.
Dark Star cover art

Dark Star

Written by: Alan Strachan
Narrated by: Alasdair Buchan
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹683.00

Buy Now for ₹683.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.

Publisher's Summary

Bloomsbury presents Dark Star by Alan Strachan, read by Alasdair Buchan.

Winner of the Society for Theatre Research Book Prize 2020

Vivien Leigh was perhaps the most iconic actress of the 20th century. As Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche Du Bois she took on some of the most pivotal roles in cinema history.

Yet she was also a talented theatre actress with West End and Broadway plaudits to her name. In this ground-breaking new biography, Alan Strachan provides a completely new full-life portrait of Leigh, covering both her professional and personal life. Using previously unseen sources from her archive, recently acquired by the V&A, he sheds new light on her fractious relationship with Laurence Olivier, based on their letters and diaries, as well as on the bipolar disorder which so affected her later life and work.

Revealing new aspects of her early life as well as providing glimpses behind-the-scenes of the filming of Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire, this book provides the essential and comprehensive life-story of one of the 20th century’s greatest actresses.

Front cover: Angus McBean Collection, MS Thr 581. © Houghton Library, Harvard University.

©2020 Alan Strachan (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic Reviews

"What makes this account of a familiar story outstanding is that Strachan wins the reader’s trust. As an experienced man of the theatre, he suggests, qualifies and adds interesting views of his own." (The Spectator)

"[Vivien Leigh’s] life, lived to the full at every second, will never be better told than it is in these pages." (The Sunday Times)

"A gripping new biography." (The Daily Mail)

More from the same

What listeners say about Dark Star

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.