Younger Brother, Younger Son: A Memoir - Tapa blanda

In response to all those readers who enthused about his book, The Prince, The Showgirl and Me, and who begged for more, Colin Clark has written a delightful, amusing, irreverent people-packed account of his encounters (professional and otherwise) with some of the leading cultural and social figures of our time.

Younger son of ‘Lord Clark of Civilisation’ and younger brother of the notorious diarist MP Alan Clark, Colin Clark describes, in these informal memoirs, his own encounters as a documentary film-maker and well-connected socialite with all the important, amusing, crazy, talented people whose company he has so much enjoyed (and recalled in the diaries he’s kept over the last 50 years): people like his brother Alan, John Osborne, Alistair Cooke, Robert Boothby, Malcolm Sargent, the Queen Mother, Prince Charles, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Margot Fonteyn, Norman Mailer, Noël Coward, William Wharton, Rudolf Nureyev, Sammy Davis, Goldie Hawn, Andy Warhol, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and many more.

When Colin Clark published his journal covering six months on the film set of 'The Prince and the Showgirl' with Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, he was hailed as a diarist quite as talented as his brother Alan. Now, in response to many requests, he has written a delightfully engaging and informal memoir of the rest of his life.

“That my father and brother were older and cleverer than I, was inescapable,” he writes, “and I could do nothing about it.” What I did not like was to be told continually, even by my loving mother, that I must never contemplate being the same as them, and that to do so would somehow be against the natural order of life. If your father and brother achieve fame, my family said, it is because they naturally deserve it. If you get any attention at all, it is because you have been “showing off” ... This is the genuine cry of a younger brother, younger son, but what a lot of joy goes with it!”

Living in the shadow of an illustrious father, the art historian Kenneth Clark (‘Lord Clark of Civilisation’), and a formidable brother, who continues to ‘excite disapproval and adoration in equal measure’, Colin has always derived great pleasure from simply being able to 'observe'. He writes with wit and affection about his extraordinary family and upbringing, his national service with the RAF and his time at Oxford, his work in the theatre with Olivier and Vivien Leigh on John Osborne’s 'The Entertainer' at the Royal Court and on tour with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 'Titus Andronicus', his highly productive life as an arts film maker in television in Britain and America, his passion for fast cars, and the many loves in his life.

Throughout there are entertaining vignettes of artists at work and ‘monsters’ at play – all of them affording excellent company. Anecdotes abound – about his brother Alan, of course, as well as John Osborne, Alistair Cooke, Bob Boothby, Malcom Sargent, The Queen Mother, Prince Charles, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Mark Rothko, Margot Fonteyn and Tito Arias, Noel Coward, William Walton, Rudolf Nureyev, Goldie Hawn and many more. Who better to record this lively passing scene than the gifted younger brother, younger son?

Applause for Colin Clark’s 'The Prince, The Showgirl and Me' (HarperCollins paperback)

“Finished Clark the Younger’s diaries early this morning. They got better and better and better. There was a hilarious description of the stars of the movie... The picture of Monroe – doped or drunk half the time, and having to be cranked into life before each take by her acting coach Paula Strasberg – is superb...a fascinating document, essential reading for anyone interested in the movies. Some of his apercus should be printed on the foreheads of every film technician in the land... there is a passion informing these pages that makes them quite as enjoyable as the Alan Clark diaries.”
NIGEL WILLIAMS, 'Mail on Sunday'

“Clark’s own love life provides a hilarious sub plot... There are many books on film making more weighty than this, but few are as entertaining.”
LYNN BARBER, 'Daily Telegraph'

“One of the best filming of a film diaries I have ever read...a wildly funny book about raging egocentric neurotic.”
SHERIDAN MORLEY, 'Sunday Times'