Elizabeth

Few celebrities today have led lives as packed with incident, crisis, scandal and achievement as Elizabeth Taylor. In this revised and updated edition Alexander Walker examines every aspect of Elizabeth's life: her privileged childhood in pre-war London; her swift rise to Hollywood stardom in films like National Velvet and the catastrophe-fraught epic Cleopatra; her six husbands; her passion to love and her need to be loved in return; her obsession with jewellery; her opulent lifestyle and the amazing resilience that has helped her survive not only condemnation for "the most public adultery in history", but also dramatic illnesses that have taken her to the point of death. "Stardom", says the author, "is a damaged state." But the hurts - and the happiness - make a compelling story.