Errol Flynn: The Life and Career

i have read all kinds of books of varying quality about errol flynn. they range from being terrible, like david bret's biography (satan's angel) or charles higham's account (the untold story). michael freedland's book is reasonably done; earl conrad's account of errol flynn writing his autobiography is brilliantly written; flynn's own memoirs are entertaining but hardly a representation of the truth. this biography is the first well - balanced, fair, descriptive and highly readable book that i have read in a long time. the author has interviewed all the right people, has had reliable sources and there are plenty of photographs that highlight particular chapters of flynn's life. the price of this book is rather expensive (most books from mcfarland are), but worth every penny.

...this is easily the best book written about flynn, head and shoulders above the rest, well written and researched too, any true flynnologist must have this book.

This is the first book I have not been able to finish written about Flynn! Many books have been great others mediocre and some awful.After reading 200 pages of this and wanting to keep putting it down for at least 100 pages! I have found this book the most boring read ever on Flynn, 45 quid for the most boring read is unbelievable, and the reviewers who said it was the book , are no doubt stooges or enjoy drivel who have have given it such high praise, causing my precious pocket money to be reduced considerably.No this will be put for sale on the second hand market.First though I will ask for my money back from the publisher if I must! I thought that a few rare photos would have been included at least.Not so!I re-read "My Wicked Wicked Ways"By Errol Flynn just to check I was not past reading Flynn and ended up reading the whole thing.What joy.Read that at a quarter of the price and 2000 times better.

I got my copy and started to read with great anticipation only to find after reading the first 163 pages that this was a dull lifeless book with no humour and was waning on me to read more! Disapointingly the book does not stand up it's great cost which is ridicules at ($65:00!)GREED?I thought this was going to be the book that would bring a new insight to the man Flynn himself it just never gets there and on top of that there was no new information in it that was new to me at any rate.The speeding car in "Santa Fe Trail" is old news.The book is well written and and has a very good appendix and I only found 6 or 7 errors in it.The perssonal storys were the only light moments in the book which were interesting to read.The plates are also only in Black/White and photo copys, on plain paper, they are not even glossy!Some are suppose to have never been seen before which is not the case.One last note on probity? The best reviews written here about this book giving it five stars are written by persons who are given acknowledgments in this book by Thomas mcnulty! At least one review is written By a lincoln D.Hurst who is acknowledged in the book!If not two here? Re-worded slightly under another name? The first being from, unnamed, from "Forrest Lawn Burbank" which is almost identical to that posted on a very good Flynn website called "Salute to the faboulous Flynn" By Lincoln D.Hurst!The other is to close to comfort for me or you to take them with sincerity as authors who are acknowledged in the book should not be writting reviews here!That is dishonest of them and works out at I will scratch your back if you scratch mine,at later date for their, book perhaps?I would have given the book a 2 or 2½, now it will get the minimum to even out the dishonest reviews and approvels of those reviews here.

An interesting biography.The author has written a concise full account of Errol Flynn's life and times,staying on the more optimistic aspects of his life while covering the negative side as they were.Mcnulty covers many arena's including the Fidler punch up and the Wallace Berry, Beery identity! Flynn's problems getting his book published due to being to close to reality for it to get the go ahead in it's original guise.Right up to his surprising platonic relationships with women he had!The rape trial transcripts though did not need to be included and I found they were an indulgence.Mcnulty on the other hand wanted this to be the definitive book on Flynn no doubt, so he can be forgiven for that aspect in the book which is a trifle boring to go through once more.The content of the book is detailed and gives the best account of Flynn's life and times so far.The book though is not without some criticism.Both copy's arrived at the weekend and to great disappointment the spine on them both, was creased and one was also split in the same area from bad manufacturing not the postal system or the packaging as that was fine.My main reason for two books was to keep one and frame one or two of the best pictures from the other book, for my youngsters room who is crazy about "The Adventures of Robin Hood" this was impossible as to my surprise the pictures were not photo prints, but paper text in-bedded pictures!So another disappointment, which is a huge surprise due to the books great cost!Even for a hardback without dust jacket!(£47:97) ($65:00) Each.(£96:00)($130:00) for both, as well as the poor quality control and damaged bindings.I dont understand why the book is so expensive for just being a hardback?Compared to a small new printing of rare historical classics recently aquired for less with full plates and 12 a volume set at that!The author and his publisher can charge what they deem right for the market maybe they only intend to sell a 1000 copys? If so then maybe they will have enough rarity to be of value in two dozen years for the dozen Flynn fans still around.They do exclude many people from this interesting work.The text paper prints of many film clips was unnecessary as these can be viewed on the Internet and other sources such as two for "Objective Burma and"Three for the "Seahawk"Though, three I had not seen before one of which is a fine picture of Errol Flynn and the gracious and lovly Olivia D. Haviland holding hands in a deep conversation.I will return both books due to the original damage and will not ask for replacements.However dont mistake the disappointments of the physical quality with the books contents the written word, this is by far the best biography I have read on Flynn that has come out in decades and the attention to detail with regards informing the reader is exceptional.For an Errol Flynn fan, this one is for the bookcase and a must have no question.