In the original dustsheet. Red cloth binding with black title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

This work traces the life of the diminutive musician, actor, comedian and sex symbol, Dudley Moore. It charts his early years as a working-class boy from Dagenham, his health problems, and his scholarship to Oxford, providing insights into his private life and inner angst and restlessness. Much to the dismay of tall men the world over, Dudley Moore has risen to become an international film star, media magnet and Hollywood heart-throb without losing a trace of the lovable English charm that propelled him to stardom in the 1960s. Dudley Moore’s life has always been about making the very best of adversity. The son of a railway man, he spent an isolated childhood in and out of hospital receiving treatment for a clubfoot (which has never healed) – and where humour kept the bullies away and music was his salvation. Winning an organ scholarship to Oxford, the working-class lad from Dagenham unexpectedly found he could attract the university’s tallest and sophisticated girls, while his talent for jazz and acting flourished into the worldwide success of the satirical review “Beyond the Fringe” and his long-running partnership with Peter Cook as “Pete ‘n’ Dud” and “Derek & Clive”.

Review: I am a great admirer of Douglas Thompson’s work, especially his unique vision of Glasgow that blends fiction in with recollection and memory. In Emilianna we see how obsession can shape vision and transform our lives, our relationships and even the cities we inhabit. Just like life we never quite know what is going on, what is fixed and what might slip away when we stop and try to examine it. There is great writing here, about loss and love. There is also humour and humanity. Another great chapbook from Eibonvale Press.

Douglas Thompson is the Sunday Times bestselling author of many non-fiction books covering an eclectic mix of subjects from major Hollywood biographies to revelatory bestsellers about remarkable people and events. Four of his books are at present being developed for global television, another for film in Hollywood. With Christine Keeler, he wrote her revealing memoir The Truth At Last. That instant bestseller was revised as Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler and the audio version recorded by actress Sophie Cookson who played Christine to critical acclaim in the successful BBC television series. His works, published in a dozen languages, include the television-based anthology Hollywood People, and a worldwide selling biographies of Clint Eastwood, Madonna and John Travolta. He collaborated with Michael Flatley on the bestseller Lord of the Dance. He divides his time between a medieval Suffolk village and California, where he lived as a Fleet Street correspondent and columnist for more than twenty years.

Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 1935 – 27 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician, and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writer-performers in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe from 1960 that created a boom in satiric comedy, and with a member of that team, Peter Cook, collaborated on the BBC television series Not Only… But Also. As a popular double act, Moore’s buffoonery contrasted with Cook’s deadpan monologues. They jointly received the 1966 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. They worked together on other projects until the mid-1970s, by which time Moore had settled in Los Angeles to concentrate on his film acting.

His career as a comedy film actor was marked by hit films, particularly Bedazzled (1967), set in Swinging Sixties London (in which he co-starred with Cook) and Hollywood productions Foul Play (1978), 10 (1979) and Arthur (1981). For Arthur, Moore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won a Golden Globe Award. He received a second Golden Globe for his performance in Micki & Maude (1984). Moore was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987 and was made a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 16 November 2001 in what was his last public appearance.