Richard Burton
de Michael Munn
Richard Burton was a man of contradictions. He wanted to escape the mining community of Wales, yet his heart never left it. He wanted to achieve greatness, but he would have been as happy to have achieved it on a rugby pitch as on a stage. He wanted to live life to the full, but he came to know that he was driving himself to an early grave through drink. He was an avid reader and a lover of poetry; a scholar of life and culture. Yet he seemed to squander his talents and find happiness at the bottom of a beer glass, giving up all hopes of becoming a great actor when he sold his soul to Hollywood and his heart to Elizabeth Taylor. But it was never quite that simple. Here is the full story of Richard Burton's life and remarkable career, revealed by a writer who knew him from 1968 up to the time they were together on Burton's last film in 1984. Munn recounts the deepest and often darkest thoughts and secrets that Burton shared with him, revealing hell-raising stories that Hollywood quashed to save Burton's early film career.
