Julie Christie

This insightful biography by experienced show - business biographers Tim Ewbank and Stafford Hildred charts the remarkable life of the tea - planter's daughter, born in India, who blossomed from troubled Sussex schoolgirl into the striking young woman who sashayed to stardom down a Bradford street in the film Billy Liar. Julie became the Face of 1965, won an Oscar for her role in ''Darling'', was courted by London and Hollywood's most eligible men, including Warren Beatty, and glowed with beauty in ''Dr Zhivago''. Off and on screen, her life has been fascinating, and only a woman with her spirit would have turned her back on Hollywood at the height of her fame to embrace a simpler life in Wales. In recent years, she has only rarely been tempted back into the limelight, but her most recent appearance, in ''Away from Her'', has led to another Oscar nomination and a renewal of interest in one of Britain's most successful, yet private, actresses.