My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Autobiography of Errol Flynn - Hollywood Golden Age Memoir, Classic Film Star Biography, Perfect for Movie Buffs & History Enthusiasts

This is probably the most enjoyable book I've ever read. Really. Mr. Flynn tells us the story of a life filled with adventure, emotional intensity, and humor. He also manages to convey the grittiness and desperation of his life at times, but he tells it all with dignity and style.He has the ability to write so that you can see it all, in your mind's eye, as if you were right there along with him. More importantly, as he takes you on his journey, he moves you to feel what he was feeling when it was happening to him.Want to go a step further? You can really go with him to Mandarin House, in Macau, China, where he gambled with a girl named Ting Ling. Just Google "Mandarin House". Want to see the hotel where Lili, his mad wife, threw a flower pot off the balcony at him on the street below? Google the "Plaza Athenee", in Paris. It looks like a nice place, with wide balconies, full of flower pots.I especially liked the part in the book where, as a young man, he meets his life long friend Hermann, and they go from New Guinea to London on cargo ships, trains, and anything that will get them closer to their destination. Along the way they get rich, and become penniless, over and over again.Another thing that makes this book a joy to read is that Flynn is a man of consciences, who does unconscionable things to survive. He was able to adapt to the circumstances he found himself in very well.He was a man who lived life without limits, but that takes a toll.When he died at age fifty, he had the body of an eighty year old man.So, who was Errol Flynn?He was a lovable little boy who was unloved and abused badly. He worked very hard to make of himself a successful and respectable man, but success slipped through his fingers, and he was ashamed of himself. When he was making Robin Hood he was a stunning figure of a man in good health and vigor, but he kept passing out on the set because of his many health problems. Women fell at his feet because of his looks and charm and stardom, but he was afraid of women because they destroyed his life. When everyone thought he was on top of the world, rich, and surrounded by beautiful women who adored him, he was really only sitting alone on the edge of his bed in the dark, with the muzzle of a revolver in his mouth. He was one of the most sophisticated men the world has ever seen, but he had the heart of a child.He describes himself as "a desperate and hard man doing what he had to, to get on". I'll take him at his word on that.The complexity of this poor damaged men, his good luck and terrible misfortune, and the extreme adventures he lived, make him a rare and awe-inspiring individual. In his wake he leaves behind the story of an amazing life.Read it.