This is the story of a woman who many liked to think of as a saint, but whose messy private life dominated the press and damaged her reputation; a girl who, after an insecure childhood, rushed into early marriage with an older man; a beauty who captivated the world, but who was never appreciated by her husband; a slender clotheshorse, whose secret eating disorder would cause her weight to swing by 20lbs in a few weeks; a star who felt ‘helpless’ at home, who had to work and travel, because only then could she ‘express myself freely, and people would listen’.

No doubt, Donald Spoto is one of the scores of biographers now frantically drying the ink on their versions of the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. If so, his work on Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman must have been useful preparation. The similarities in the early lives of