DO WE GET the life we deserve or is it all completely random and out of our hands? If you have lots of really good stuff happen to you at the beginning, does that mean you can expect to have things evened out with lots of bad stuff later? Do only shits prosper or do nice guys get a look-in too? How much sex is it reasonable to expect to have had by the time you croak? Does money buy happiness? How much is enough? Are there any nice ways to die?

If these are the sort of questions you ask yourself when you read a biography - and if they're not, are you a stone, a Vulcan or what? - you're going to have a hell of a time with David Niven's. He was an Oscar-winning: actor, one of the greatest