Elizabeth by Randy Taraborelli.✔✔✔

As a young teenager, I was a star-struck movie actress fan, and Elizabeth Taylor was one of my favorites, probably because of the movie Giant, which I absolutely adored. Any meagre allowance I ever received as a kid was saved so I could buy Photoplay magazine or Modern Screen; I read these avidly and with awe at the life styles of the rich and famous.

I remember when ET divorced Michael Wilding and married Mike Todd, then the devastation she endured when Mike Todd was killed in a plane crash. This was all big news back then, with many, many photos and stories to tease the appetite. I followed her antics with Richard Burton less closely because I was at university by then, and busy with my own antics, but I do remember wondering why she had ever married Eddie Fisher, and also thinking that Richard Burton, a very strong individual, was more suited to her. Her succeeding marriages were of less interest, because by then I was mature enough to wonder why she kept marrying these men! She was the one with all the money, after all. ( In 1994 her NET worth was $650 million)

So reading this unauthorized bio was sort of a nostalgic journey for me because much of the material was well-known to me. I did not know much about her childhood, other than the fact that her mother, Sara, was the original "stage mother", a role she played right up to her death at age 99. I did wonder why Elizabeth had these numerous, debilitating illnesses and accidents - the author lists them at one point, and it's absolutely incredible how just about everything that came her way came with a high degree of intensity - brain tumor, broken hip(2x),alcoholism, drug dependency, weight issues, acute pneumonia,hip replacements, etc. Burton maintained that she thrived on her illnesses, yet she did recover from all of them, and she shows no sign of giving in to herself. The author suggests that her illnesses were a way for her to take control of her life - especially as a young actress under contract, an illness was her only way of getting out of doing movies she didn't want to make. But how can you plan such things? Myself, I think she was just a high-maintenance person: everything was done to extremes.

The author is very kind to her - he doesn't sugar-coat too much but he does make excuses for her a lot of the time.It was well-written and an interesting diversion for me, plus a trip into my own past!