Sample
  • Dark Star

  • A Biography of Vivien Leigh
  • By: Alan Strachan
  • Narrated by: Alasdair Buchan
  • Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (100 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Dark Star

By: Alan Strachan
Narrated by: Alasdair Buchan
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.63

Buy for $19.63

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
activate_WEBCRO358_DT_T2

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Society for Theatre Research Book Prize 2020

Vivien Leigh was perhaps the most iconic actress of the twentieth 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 twentieth century’s greatest actresses.
©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)