Joan Plowright first met Laurence Olivier in the mid-1950s when he was still married to GONE WITH THE WIND star Vivien Leigh. Joan was the daughter of a north country newspaper editor and his wife, an amateur actress of note. She went to drama school, worked at the Royal Court at the height of its LOOK BACK IN ANGER celebrity, starred in plays by Arnold Wesker and John Osborne, and then Olivier came into her life. They started an affair - then Vivien Leigh, a manic depressive, suddenly consented to Olivier divorcing her. Joan's marriage to Olivier coincided with the launch of two companies directed by Olivier, the Chichester Festival and the National, in which she appeared. She confesses that he was 'not the easiest man to be married to' but they stayed together and she nursed him through ten years of illness. At the core of this book is the relationship with Olivier and it includes their love letters. Joan also refutes the wilder claims that have been made about Olivier's sexuality in several unauthorised biographies. She has always enjoyed writing as these feisty, poignant and funny memoirs show.