Clara Bow Runnin’ Wild, by David Stenn takes us back to the Roaring Twenties, when the film industry moved out of New York and headed for sunny Hollywood. Clara Bow was the original sex symbol, dubbed the “It” girl by F Scott Fitzgerald. But she came from a troubled Brooklyn home and a family beset by insanity. Stenn makes a strong and sympathetic case for her probable mental illness (schizophrenia is mooted), but doesn’t skimp on the lurid tales we all not-so-secretly love, including drug abuse and affairs with men like screen God Gary Cooper. Riveting reading.
Lee Randall, senior features writer, The Scotsman