David Bret – författare

At 1.28 a.m. on Wednesday, 23 March 2011, just three weeks after celebrating her 79th birthday, the biggest star Hollywood has ever known died. The tributes and eulogies to Elizabeth Taylor were legion. A weeping Elton John said, 'We have just lost a Hollywood giant. More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being.' In Elizabeth Taylor: The Lady, The Lover, The Legend, 1932-2011, acclaimed biographer David Bret has written the revealing, incisive and definitive life story of the most controversial cinematic icon since Mae West. While never yielding in his admiration and respect, Bret has stripped away the veneer to portray the star as she really was: sometimes arrogant, attention-seeking, avaricious, reckless, monstrous towards her peers, generous, even foolish at times but, above all, through the tumultuous relationships and the personal mayhem, a survivor.Elizabeth Taylor was the very last of the Hollywood greats. As David Bret writes, 'Most of her contemporaries - Garbo, Streisand and Dietrich excepted - were compelled to walk in the shadow of her sun. Of today's stars, not one may be deemed worthy of stepping even within a mile of that shadow.

With his stunning looks and swashbuckling onscreen panache Errol Flynn was by all appearances the quintessential movie star who had it all. But Flynn's manicured Hollywood persona did little to hide his insatiable appetites off-screen - the binge drinking, brawling and womanising that would forever cement his place as a film legend. In this hard-hitting study, bestselling show business biographer David Bret traces the life and loves of the actor and man.It was Flynn's natural charisma and athletic prowess that made him as the heartthrob star of Captain Blood and The Adventures Of Robin Hood. But Hollywood's prodigal son was never far from controversy and scandal. In a series of extraordinary revelations Bret explores the star's love of underage girls, young men, binge drinking and drug experimentation, as well as his controversial background as a slave-trader in New Guinea, involvement with the Spanish civil war and his support for Castro. This is compelling and engrossing portrait of the original action-adventure star, who packed more into his fifty years than his high-living contemporaries ever could. The gifted, complex and rakish rebel remains without equal as the film icon of the 20th century. This book is an excellent tribute to an extraordinary actor.David Bret was born in Paris and is a leading celebrity biographer. His many acclaimed books include biographies of Marlene Dietrich, Gracie Fields, Freddie Mercury, Tallulah Bankhead, Maria Callas, Rudolph Valentino, Edith Piaf and Joan Crawford. He lives in Yorkshire.

Dubbed the British Marilyn Monroe' or the British Bridget Bardot', Diana Dors finally proclaimed I'd rather be known as the hurricane in mink'. The actress was best known for her lavish lifestyle; she was a blonde bombshell with a penchant for flashy cars, opulent mansions, glitzy garb and jet-setting living. Diana Dors' rise to fame started with being a GI favourite during the war. However, she was keen to ditch her goody-goody image and announced that she wanted to be like Errol Flynn. It worked she became a huge star, working with the likes of Joan Crawford and famously starred in Yield to the Night, the movie that contributed to the abolition of the death penalty. But despite the glamour, her affairs, sex parties and OTT lifestyle, including an illicit affair with Rod Steiger left her branded as a scarlet woman, unwanted by the Studios. Undeterred, the indomitable Dors simply worked tirelessly to establish for herself a successful career in cabaret. Her life was didn't always smell of roses: her first husband cheated on her, stole from her, beat her and finally died of syphilis. Another lover who she considered faithful two-timed her with Rock Hudson. She finally found love with husband number three, who killed himself 5 months after her death. This is the amazing story of an actress who loved life and lived it to the full, told with compassion and vigour.