Julie Burchill summed up the story of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier deftly in her Spectator column two years ago; Brighton’s most famous peer “was a bisexual actor married to an insane nymphomaniac”. Although Burchill’s view is something of a nadir in accounts of the famous couple, it is by no means the only misinformed, vulgar and reductive utterance on the subject, as Alan Strachan makes clear in his measured, comprehensive and perceptive biography of Leigh, who is restored here to her rightful position as one of the greatest actresses of the 20th century.
Strachan has had access to the important Leigh archive acquired some five years ago by the Victoria and Albert Museum, a treasure trove of letters, diaries and photographs. And he has