Elizabeth Taylor's Kiss and Other Brushes with Hollywood

Description

“What a treat. An all-star cast with one thing in common: they worked with David Wood. And just for us he’s brought them to life again – and so vividly – in this irresistible memoir of his ‘brushes with Hollywood." – Gyles Brandreth

In this memoir, actor and writer David Wood recalls his ‘brushes with Hollywood’, notably being kissed on the lips by Elizabeth Taylor as midnight struck on his 22nd birthday; playing Richard Burton’s servant on stage in Dr Faustus; being seduced by Shelley Winters in The Vamp, a television two-hander play; hanging upside down from a chandelier and being rescued by David Hemmings in the West End musical Jeeves; singing songs and being shot down in flames as a Royal Flying Corps officer in the film Aces High, in which he was reunited with Malcolm McDowell (his fellow rebel schoolboy in the film If….) and acted alongside Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward; sharing the screen at sea in an oil rig supply vessel with Roger Moore, Anthony Perkins and James Mason in North Sea Hijack; penning the daytime Emmy-nominated Back Home, starring Hayley Mills, thereby becoming a Disney-approved writer; and writing The Queen’s Handbag to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday, performed in Buckingham Palace Gardens and seen live by 8,000,000 BBC TV viewers.

“It’s a window into another time and some of the wonderful people that David knew when he was just starting his career as a young actor. I couldn’t put it down. It has all the charm and warmth and wit that is David Wood and his lifelong passion for the theatre is inspiring. I loved it.” – Hayley Mills

David Wood OBE is an actor, writer, playwright, composer and magician. He appeared on stage opposite Sir Michael Redgrave in A Voyage Round My Father and in After Haggerty for the Royal Shakespeare Company. On television he appeared in everything from classic serials and The New Avengers, to Jackanory and Play Away. Perhaps best known as ‘the national children’s dramatist’ (The Times), his 75 plays for children have been performed worldwide. They include The Gingerbread Man, The See-Saw Tree, eight Roald Dahl adaptations including The BFG and The Witches, the Olivier Award-winning Goodnight Mister Tom (from Michelle Magorian’s classic novel), and the Olivier Award-nominated The Tiger Who Came to Tea (from Judith Kerr’s iconic picture book). He wrote the screenplay of the 1974 film Swallows and Amazons. His grown-up musical, The Go-Between (from LP Hartley’s novel), co-written with Richard Taylor and starring Michael Crawford, played at London West End’s Apollo Theatre in 2016.