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.

Literary Review

Oct 2006

Categories

Frank McLynn

A Monster of Egotism too Easily Forgiven

What’s the Big Idea?

Ruled by the Waves

An Archer Could Beat the Knight in Armour

The Women’s Studies Course at Boulder

Bought and Sold for British Gold

Landgrabber-in-Chief

Worth Investigation

He was Happy to Be Dissected Mercilessly

Hearts of Darkness

Did He Wash His Hands?

Full of Lollipops

Down & Out in Nagaland

Tribes & Tribulations

Not Enough Selection

The Wisest Fool in Christendom

Film Buff Laid Bare

Write To Reply

Whose Ireland

The Founding Fathers

Time of the Trireme

A Man Between

He’s Tall, He’s Rangy

What Really Happened At Rorke’s Drift

Full Pelt History