When I met Leslie Howard at Denham studios there was talk of a film about Bonnie Prince Charlie that Korda was planning to make with Howard as Charles Edward Stuart. He knew the hazards (and others were to discover how great they were) but he said he was attracted by the rôle since he thought of the Prince as a symbol of youthful idealism. It might well have worked. As he showed in Pimpernel Smith and The First of the Few, Howard could inject a firm sense of purpose into the posture of languorous elegance he often adopted on the screen. He might even have persuaded the Clan Chiefs not to turn back at Derby and march on London.

Ronald Howard does not mention this potential involvement in his book, which is understandable as it does not claim to be a full biography of his father. The Hollywood years, which included The Petrified Forest, Romeo and Juliet and Gone with the Wind, are treated somewhat perfunctorily and