Down Under Milk Wood

"How a first-time British director persuaded the two biggest (and booziest) stars in the world, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, to appear in the ill-fated movie version of Dylan Thomas's classic, Under Milk Wood."

Andrew Preston, the Mail on Sunday.

"Informative, immensely entertaining..."

Philip French, the Observer.

This illustrated memoir is by Andrew Sinclair. He writes about his long relationship with the works of Dylan Thomas and within the film industry, its leading actors and directors.

Sinclair made David Hemmings into a star in Blow-Up, which he also published beside 70 other classic screenplays. He has directed Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O'Toole, David Jason, Oliver Reed and Joanna Lumley as well as a host of other prominent players.

Among his printed screenplays, Andrew Sinclair worked with Josef von Sternberg on The Blue Angel and Orson Welles, Jean Renoir and Jean-Luc Goddard, and even Graham Greene on the script of The Third Man. He was also the author of biographies of John Ford and Sam Spiegel.

This book is a rich and riotous account of fifty years of film-making by a well-known historian and novelist hailing from Cambridge University (which now holds his papers) and from Hollywood too. Whichever was the right direction, he never knew.

For the centenary this year of the birth of Dylan Thomas, Sinclair's classic film of Under Milk Wood is being shown through the British Council around the world.

Contains 13 colour and 17 mono photographs.