What Fresh Lunacy Is This? - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472112636 ISBN 13: 9781472112637

Publisher: Constable, 2014

Synopsis

Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period in the early 70s he came within a hairsbreadth of replacing Sean Connery as James Bond - but he is an august member of that small band of people, like George Best and Eric Morecambe, who transcended their chosen medium, became too big for it even, and grew into cultural icons. For the first time Reed's close family has agreed to collaborate on a project about the man himself. The result is a fascinating new insight into a man seen by many as merely a brawling, boozing hellraiser. And yet he was so much more than this.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Sellers is the author of the bestselling Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed and Hollywood Hellraisers. He has also written biographies on Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, a history of the George Harrison/Monty Python film company HandMade, and the controversial Battle for Bond, which for a time was banned by the family of Ian Fleming. He was a regular contributor to Empire, Total Film, Independent, SFX and Cinema Retro and has contributed to a number of television documentaries, including Channel 4's The 100 Best Family Films.

Review:

What Fresh Lunacy Is This? is a nice, racy romp with Reed the rum-sodden rogue * Financial Times * In this adulatory but always entertaining book, Sellers... shows that "Ollie" was a more interesting figure than the cartoon drunk of the tabloids * Sunday Times * Like Reed himself, the book might not be subtle but in places it's hilariously funny and, by the end, oddly moving as well * The Observer * For the first time, Reed's close family has collaborated on a project about Reed himself, revealing a complex man behind the facade, a person of great passions and loyalties underscored by deep-rooted vulnerabilities and insecurities. With never-heard-before anecdotes and new interviews with family, friends and peers, What Fresh Lunacy Is This? is a revealing examination of his mould-breaking personality * Sight and Sound * There is a great feeling of loss and tragedy at the core of Sellers's biography. He is unflinching in the depiction of how awful Reed could be, but balances that with a strong sense of the love and affection he inspired in those around him. If nothing else, this highly readable book is a permanent reminder of just how exhausting it must have been to be Oliver Reed. * Glasgow Sunday Herald * This is a brilliant and beguiling account of Reed's life and times * Mail on Sunday *

About this edition

• Publisher: Constable
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1472112636
• ISBN 13: 9781472112637
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 560