My Week With Marilyn - Softcover

Clark, Colin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006531792 ISBN 13: 9780006531791

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

In 1956, fresh from Eton and Oxford, the 23-year-old Colin Clark (son of ‘Lord Clark of Civilisation’, brother of maverick Tory MP and diarist Alan) worked as a humble ‘gofer’ on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, the film that disastrously united Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe.

Forty years on, his diary account was chosen as book of the year by Jilly Cooper, Joan Collins and others. But one week was missing. This is the story of that week, a delicious idyll in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to escape from the pressures of stardom. Her new husband Arthur Miller was away, and the coast was clear for Colin to introduce her to the pleasures of British life. How he ended up sharing her bed is a tale too rich to summarise!

About this title

About the Author

Colin Clark is the younger brother of the famous diarist Alan Clark and younger son of Kenneth (‘Lord Clark of Civilisation’). His first book, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, was published to huge critical acclaim in September 1995. Born in 1932, Colin Clark was educated at Eton and Oxford. After The Prince and the Showgirl, he became personal assistant to Laurence Olivier before moving to Granada Television. Subsequently he produced and directed over 100 arts documentary films in America and Britain. His autobiography Younger Brother, Younger Son was published in 1997.

From the Back Cover

"The immediacy and charm of Clark's recollections are possibly more illuminating than the millions of words and pictures pumped out to expose or dish the dirt on the Monroe legend"
HELEN OSBORNE, 'Sunday Telegraph'

In this delightfully comic and touchingly romantic book Colin Clark describes – for the first time – what happened between Marilyn Monroe and himself during the 'missing' week from his celebrated diary for 1956, published in 1995 as 'The Prince, the Showgirl and Me'.

In 1956, fresh from Eton and Oxford, the twenty-three-year-old Colin Clark was employed as a humble 'gofer' on the set of 'The Prince and the Showgirl', the film that was intended to unite the talents of Sir Laurence Olivier, England's pre-eminent classical actor, and Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood's greatest star. From the outset the production was bedevilled by problems, and the clashes between Monroe and Olivier, who was both directing and co-starring, have entered film legend.

Nearly forty years later, Colin Clark's wonderfully entertaining diary of that time was chosen of the book of the year by Jilly Cooper, Joan Collins and many others. But – one week was missing from the middle of the book. Here is the story of that week: a delicious idyll in which Clark came to know an unhappy Monroe desperate to escape from the pressures of working with Olivier and an often hostile cast and crew, from the crowd of hangers-on who continually surrounded her, and from the burden of her stardom itself. How he unexpectedly ended up sharing a bed is a story readers will have to discover themselves.

"An engaging slice of memoir"
OBSERVER

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0006531792
• ISBN 13: 9780006531791
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160