A delightfully comic and touchingly romantic book about the week that Marilyn Monroe spent with the young Colin Clark, who escorted her around the country, while her husband Arthur Miller was away.  Clark's extraordinary experiences on and off set have now been turned into a major film starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Judi Dench, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh and Dominic Cooper, released in November 2011.

Synopsis

In 1956, fresh from Eton and Oxford, the 23-year-old Colin Clark (son of 'Lord Clark of Civilisation', brother of maverick Tory MP and diarist Alan) worked as a humble 'gofer' on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, the film that disastrously united Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe. Forty years on, his diary account was chosen as book of the year by Jilly Cooper, Joan Collins and others. But one week was missing. This is the story of that week, a delicious idyll in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to escape from the pressures of stardom. Her new husband Arthur Miller was away, and the coast was clear for Colin to introduce her to the pleasures of British life. How he ended up sharing her bed is a tale too rich to summarise!

Reviews

'The immediacy and charm of Clark's recollections are possibly more illuminating than the millions of words and pictures pumped out to expose or dish the dirt on the Monroe legend'
Helen Osborne, Sunday Times

'Beguiling, touching and compassionate'
Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard

'An extraordinary story'
Frank Johnson, Spectator Praise for The Prince, The Showgirl and Me:

'This book is sheer delight!wonderfully funny!by the end of this short but richly packed chronicle, Colin Clark seems like an old friend!he is blessed with a sharp eye and an even sharper pen'
Sunday Telegraph

'My favourite book of the year'
Joan Collins

'The marvellous traumas and stampings of feet of the stars are recorded through the eyes of a star struck youngster whose bedside prose is so sharp and polished'
The Times

'It's the funniest account of life in the booby-hatch that's a film studio known to me!It's not that I await [his next] diaries eagerly, but I'm planning to sneak into Clark's house and read them right this minute'
Spectator

'Delightful: so observant and pleasing, and such enjoyable asides'
Alan Clark (letter to Colin Clark)

'Revealing, moving and deliciously funny'
Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Colin Clark was the younger brother of the famous diarist Alan Clark and younger son of Kenneth ('Lord Clark of Civilisation'). His first book, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, was published to huge critical acclaim in September 1995. Born in 1932, Colin Clark was educated at Eton and Oxford. After The Prince and the Showgirl, he became personal assistant to Laurence Olivier before moving to Granada Television. Subsequently he produced and directed over 100 arts documentary films in America and Britain. His autobiography Younger Brother, Younger Son was published in 1997. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation