Frank McLynn
The Hoyden Within
Kate: The Woman who was Katharine Hepburn
By William J Mann
Faber 600pp £17.99 order from our bookshop
More nonsense and claptrap has been written about Katharine Hepburn than about any other personality in the movies. Mostly this is because Hepburn herself gave new meaning to the word ‘manipulative’: she could have given masterclasses on spin to Alistair Campbell and on reinvention to Madonna. If the blemish in William Mann’s book is an almost total failure to analyse the many films she appeared in, its great merit is that it deconstructs the Hepburn legend, lets in daylight and allows us to sift the facts (mainly detrimental to Hepburn’s reputation) from the fantasy she and her agents sedulously peddled.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency
'We have all twenty-nine of her Barsetshire novels, and whenever a certain longing reaches critical mass we read all twenty-nine again, straight through.'
Patricia T O'Conner on her love for Angela Thirkell. (£)
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad