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

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The expression “a Burton/Taylor relationship” has entered the language, to define a couple who can’t live with each other and yet can’t live without each other either. This is an interesting behind-the-scenes look at one of the most tempestuous and glamorous celebrity marriages of all time. For roughly a decade, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor provided no end of gossip fodder with their fights, their reconciliations, their films, their globetrotting, and their massively extravagant lifestyle. Those diamonds! That yacht! Those parties! It is also a study of two acting careers in decline. Burton was initially hailed as one of the all-time greats, and Elizabeth was THE Queen of Hollywood. They got together on the set of the epic ‘Cleopatra’, where Elizabeth was the first actor to command a million-dollar fee (she later said she suggested it as a joke, not expecting to actually be given it), but in barely a decade they were reduced to appearing in oddball European films, some of which aren’t as bad as many critics of the time made out they were.

Somebody once said of Elizabeth Taylor that whereas many modern celebrities seem to do everything as a publicity stunt (Madonna being one example), with Elizabeth everything was real. And for all the fact that Elizabeth was a spoiled diva, who had been used to being the pampered centre of attention from her earliest days as a child star, she still comes across as very likeable. She was genuinely devoted to her children – no ‘Mommie Dearest’ elements here – and insisted that they be with her at all times, when usually it might have made more practical sense to put them in expensive boarding schools, whilst she and Richard globetrotted as part of their work. She also adored animals, and carried a complete menagerie with her on her travels, much to the detriment of many an expensive hotel carpet. She was a consummate professional who was famous in her trade for getting her lines right in one go, and was well-liked by her colleagues. There was also a surprising lack of “don’t you know who I am?” about her. Like royalty, she had spent most of her life being the centre of attention, but it amused her when she wasn’t.

Burton was a frustrated academic. I suspect he would have been happier as a writer, and so there is some consolation that his diaries are now highly regarded. He never lost touch with his roots, and always supported his family back in Wales. There is an inevitable sadness in the segment towards the end of his life. His health was in an appalling state, particularly considering he was only 58 when he died, but I suppose that’s what happens when you routinely down 3 or 4 bottles of vodka a day! The author makes the valid point that people were generally far more cruel to alcoholics in the public eye in those days. Drunken behaviour was the fodder of jokes and embarrassing paparazzi photo’s. These days people would be urging him into rehab. It’s interesting that Elizabeth was the first high-profile celebrity to go into rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic in 1983. There is an incredibly sad moment towards the end when Richard’s memory was clearly going, and he asked his then wife, Sally Burton, “did it really happen? The yacht? The diamonds?” By that stage it must have all felt like an incredible dream.