Julie Christie

This insightful biography by experienced show-business biographers Tim Ewbank and Stafford Hildred charts the remarkable life of the tea-planter's daughter, born in India, who blossomed from troubled Sussex schoolgirl into the striking young woman who sashayed to stardom down a Bradford street in the film Billy Liar. Julie became the Face of 1965, won an Oscar for her role in Darling , was courted by London and Hollywood's most eligible men, including Warren Beatty, and glowed with beauty in Dr Zhivago . Off and on screen, her life has been fascinating, and only a woman with her spirit would have turned her back on Hollywood at the height of her fame to embrace a simpler life in Wales. In recent years, she has only rarely been tempted back into the limelight, but her most recent appearance, in Away from Her , has led to another Oscar nomination and a renewal of interest in one of Britain's most successful, yet private, actresses.