“Elizabeth Taylor, A Celebration” by Sheridan Morley (published by Dean Street Press)
Queen of the Nile, Hollywood and Swindon
I was a teenage movie-goer. Life-long addiction began at the Odeon and the Gaumont in 1960s Swindon, Wiltshire, UK. There was silly stuff (Norman Wisdom, The Larkins), war (“The Train”, “The Blue Max”), spies (James Bond, “Our Man Flint”), pop (Cliff Richard, The Beatles) and in 1963 “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, viewed in innocence by a youngster unaware of the infamous place it would come to hold in filmic history.
“Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, the Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter” by Eli Frankel (published by Citadel Press)
Brutal killer of two women ’named’ after police fail
Eli Frankel, a television and documentary producer in Los Angeles, is emphatic that after three years of research he has solved the particularly savage murders of Leila Welsh in 1941 and Elizabeth Short in 1947, two investigations that stumped huge police manhunts and are ...
"From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads, A Bowie Odyssey” by James Briggs (published by Icon)
By bike to find meaning in a song, and in life too
And so, you’re getting old and you’re about to have one of those mid-life crisis thingummies. What have you achieved so far? Sweet Fanny Adams. By now you should have climbed Everest naked or invented something vital to mankind or become a Sunday Times ...
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"Political Girl, Life and Fate in Russia” by Maria Alyokhina (published by allen lane)
Brave but losing battle against tyrannical monster
Please don’t expect Maria Alyokhina to be objective. You’d be subjective too if you’d been locked up over and over, beaten and abused for opposing the murderous tyrant ruling your country. Definitely call her brave, living a life so risky she finally fled Russia ...
“Audrey Hepburn” by Sheridan Morley (published by Dean Street Press)
From blink-and-you-miss-her to can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her
Little did cinema-goers know when they were watching “One Wild Oat,” “Laughter in Paradise” or “The Lavender Hill Mob” in mid-1951 that they were in at the birth of a Hollywood legend. There, speaking minimal lines for fleeting moments was Audrey Hepburn making her ...
“Marilyn Monroe” by Sheridan Morley and Ruth Leon (published by Dean Street Press)
Life hit highs, lows then crashed to terrible end
On the loose in Los Angeles in the early 1990s with a hire car, it seemed like a good idea to take a half-hour drive to visit Marilyn Monroe, or at least her final resting place, at the Westwood Memorial Park, about half-way between ...
“The Cat” by Georges Simenon (published by Penguin Books)
Couple have claws out after deaths of each other’s pet
Somehow it’s both tragic and ridiculous in this 1967 outing from our favourite Belgian author, Monsieur Simenon, one of his so-called “romans durs”, the “hard” or “psychological” novels, a step up from his popular Inspector Maigret. Whichever way you look at it though, this ...
"Hotel Exile, Paris in the Shadow of War” by Jane Rogoyska (published by Allen Lane)
Worst of times in the best of surroundings
When Paris’ luxury hotels are mentioned here – the Crillon, George V, Ritz, Meurice, Majestic – they all are on the Rive Droite, the Right Bank, many in historical buildings once owned by aristocrats. The Lutetia though stands apart, a grand transatlantic liner of ...
“Meet the Kellys: The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Moll Kathryn Thorne” by Chris Enss (published by Citadel Press)
Insatiable wife pushed hubby deeper and deeper into crime
George Kelly’s wife Kathryn loved luxury – top hotels, swanky restaurants, nice clothes, expensive furs and jewellery – so it was she who bought him a useful machine gun. For while her man was doing well enough as a bootlegger, they both were ambitious ...
“Bombing Hitler's Hometown, The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe” by Mike Croissant (published by Citadel Press)
Führer’s grandiose plans for Linz blown to kingdom come
Even a madman has to grow up somewhere, and for Adolf Hitler this was the Austrian city Linz. Hitler lived there from age 9 years in 1898 to age 19 in 1908, maturing into the dictator who moved on to Vienna, Munich and Berlin, ...
"Traitor's Odyssey, The Untold Story of Martha Dodd and a Strange Saga of Soviet Espionage" by Brendan McNally (published by Icon Books)
Pillow talk with Nazis sent for Stalin’s attention
Her name was prosaic enough – plain simple Martha Dodd – but the woman behind the moniker was anything but. When author Brendan McNally first heard about the unusual lady and went on to investigate, he uncovered an extraordinary but mostly forgotten life story, ...
Most read articles Books
“Elizabeth Taylor, A Celebration” by Sheridan Morley (published by Dean Street Press)
Queen of the Nile, Hollywood and Swindon
I was a teenage movie-goer. Life-long addiction began at the Odeon and the Gaumont in 1960s Swindon, Wiltshire, UK. There was silly stuff (Norman Wisdom, The Larkins), war (“The Train”, “The Blue Max”), spies (James Bond, “Our Man Flint”), pop (Cliff Richard, The Beatles) ...
“Audrey Hepburn” by Sheridan Morley (published by Dean Street Press)
From blink-and-you-miss-her to can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her
Little did cinema-goers know when they were watching “One Wild Oat,” “Laughter in Paradise” or “The Lavender Hill Mob” in mid-1951 that they were in at the birth of a Hollywood legend. There, speaking minimal lines for fleeting moments was Audrey Hepburn making her ...
"From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads, A Bowie Odyssey” by James Briggs (published by Icon)
By bike to find meaning in a song, and in life too
And so, you’re getting old and you’re about to have one of those mid-life crisis thingummies. What have you achieved so far? Sweet Fanny Adams. By now you should have climbed Everest naked or invented something vital to mankind or become a Sunday Times ...
Most commented articles Books
“A Promenade in Parc Munkácsy” by Alexander York (published by Austin Macauley)
Colourful characters twist and turn in crime caper
Debut novelist Alexander York has seemingly gone for filmic atmosphere rather than minor style issues such as crossing the “t”s and dotting the “i”s, and Hungarians can be along for the scenic ride as the action sets out from England and passes numerous Magyarország ...
“Greyhound” by C.S. Forester (published by Penguin Books)
Dogged by death in the deep
C.S. Forester died in 1966 and he is not forgotten in The Budapest Times office, where we have a nice little collection of 18 of his books. But they don’t include “Greyhound”, and in fact we were a bit puzzled when it was published ...
Plan outlined for carbon-zero emissions
Bill Gates book aims to avoid climate catastrophe
American business magnate and humanitarian Bill Gates has written an urgent book setting out a wide-ranging, practical vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.
