[.ca] NIV: The Authorized Biography of David Niven (ISBN 0786274476)

Pleasing look at a great man.:
On screen David Niven was the charming Englishman, dapper and debonair. He won the love from audiences with films like "The Dawn Patrol", "Around the World in 80 Days" and his Academy Award winning performance in "Separate Tables" and also for his two highly entertaining books about Hollywood's golden age "The Moons a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses". Off Screen his life was often far less happy. This book details his early screen stardom, his war service and the death of his beloved wife Primmie, of which he never recovered, for all of his success he remained deeply unhappy. But still he managed to carry on and cheer other people up, and in his off-screen life was often a kind, considerate man.

Behind the twinkling eyes:
David Niven was the epitome of the dashing Englishman, charming, witty, handsome and well mannered, he was beloved on screen for almost forty years. He also gained fame with his two hugely successful and funny books on Hollywood in it's golden era "The Moon's A Balloon" and "Bring On the Empty Horses". Yet behind the twinkling eyes Niven's life was puncuated by tragedy and he was often deeply unhappy. Graham Lord delves deeply into his private life, from his childhood, his journey to Hollywood where he became a major star and a beloved figure off-screen, his war service. But tragedy struck when Niven's beloved first wife (who he met during the second world war) was killed in a child's game at a Hollywood party, Niven never recovered from this loss, yet through his whole life (which included a volatile marriage to a second wife), he still retained his humour saying that "Life is so bloody awful, that it's the duty of all of us to cheer other people up", which he did on-screen and off for the rest of his life. This book is a fitting bio to a very charming man and one of the silver screens great leading men.