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A Postillion Struck by Lightning
From the back cover:
“This is Dirk Bogarde’s story, a delightful encounter with a world-famous actor, in which he recalls his early life in Sussex, the tough days at a Glasgow technical school, his time at Chelsea Polytechnic, his arrival in Hollywood.
To read this absorbing autobiography is not just to trace the first steps of a talented young actor, it is also to discover a fine and gifted writer. For the childhood scenes Bogarde evokes – of a happy and sufficient country life, of the unspoilt harmony of summer days – are brilliantly caught, spiced with a natural humour. It is these moments above all, which make the book so memorable and appealing.”
“This is Dirk Bogarde’s story, a delightful encounter with a world-famous actor, in which he recalls his early life in Sussex, the tough days at a Glasgow technical school, his time at Chelsea Polytechnic, his arrival in Hollywood.
To read this absorbing autobiography is not just to trace the first steps of a talented young actor, it is also to discover a fine and gifted writer. For the childhood scenes Bogarde evokes – of a happy and sufficient country life, of the unspoilt harmony of summer days – are brilliantly caught, spiced with a natural humour. It is these moments above all, which make the book so memorable and appealing.”
302 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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264 people want to read
About the author
Dirk Bogarde
36 books26 followersDirk Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde was born of mixed Flemish, Dutch and Scottish ancestry, and baptised on 30 October 1921 at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr, Birmingham; 1892–1972), was the art editor of The Times and his mother, Margaret Niven (1898–1980), was a former actress. He attended University College School, the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow (a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account) and later studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. He began his acting career on stage in 1939, shortly before the start of World War II.
Bogarde served in World War II, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. As John Carey has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in 'The Night Porter'.
Bogarde's London West End theatre-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinée idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp (1950) co-starring Jack Warner and Bernard Lee; a handsome artist who comes to rescue of Jean Simmons during the World's Fair in Paris in So Long at the Fair, a film noir thriller; an accidental murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London (1953) as a young wing commander in Bomber Command who, against orders, opts to fly his 90th mission with his men in a major air offensive against the Germans; an unjustly imprisoned man who regains hope in clearing his name when he learns his sweetheart, Mai Zetterling, is still alive in Desperate Moment (1953); Doctor in the House (1954), as a medical student, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and James Robertson Justice as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles.
Bogarde continued acting until 1990. 'Daddy Nostalgie' was his final film.
Bogarde served in World War II, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. As John Carey has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in 'The Night Porter'.
Bogarde's London West End theatre-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinée idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp (1950) co-starring Jack Warner and Bernard Lee; a handsome artist who comes to rescue of Jean Simmons during the World's Fair in Paris in So Long at the Fair, a film noir thriller; an accidental murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London (1953) as a young wing commander in Bomber Command who, against orders, opts to fly his 90th mission with his men in a major air offensive against the Germans; an unjustly imprisoned man who regains hope in clearing his name when he learns his sweetheart, Mai Zetterling, is still alive in Desperate Moment (1953); Doctor in the House (1954), as a medical student, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and James Robertson Justice as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles.
Bogarde continued acting until 1990. 'Daddy Nostalgie' was his final film.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
February 20, 2025
This is a remarkably evocative memoir of an Arcadian childhood and adolescence, written by a film star, although by this time (1977), Dirk Bogarde may well have considered himself more of a writer and a former film star.
The best parts of show business biographies, especially autobiographies, tend to be the early chapters dealing with childhood leading up to initial success as performers. Thereafter the narrative can often become an episodic account of events and accomplishments, many of which are already known. The stories can also be prone to name-dropping with tales of affairs and bad behaviour, which of course can be of interest, but are usually not as fresh or revealing as the early stuff. In this case Dirk Bogarde’s early years comprise the whole book.
From 1977 Bogarde produced a steam of eight autobiographical volumes of which this is the first.
For perspective, his life looks like this: childhood and adolescence fit neatly into the inter war period; he was a soldier in World War Two; a major British film star in light leading roles in the fifties; a very serious actor in the sixties; moving to France in 1966 where he spent the rest of his life; suffering a mild stroke in 1990; he was knighted rather belatedly in 1992 and died in 1998 at the age of 78.
Bogarde starts with his memories of pre-war rural England aged six to seven looking for a lost pet tortoise with his younger sister, an English childhood full of stuff now gone or peculiarly English. The family lived in an old cottage:
Dirk’s mother apparently could have had a career as an actor and his father was an arts journalist with The Times. One grandfather was a talented artist but it was a talent directed to creating forgeries. So on one level it is no wonder that Bogarde became an actor, artist (his pen and ink sketches illustrate the text) and writer, although, mercifully not that we are aware of, any criminal activity in these roles. It is notable though that Bogarde was coy, if not dissembling about his sexuality, never acknowledging that he was gay. This is understandable, given the time he lived in, which included the period when homosexuality remained illegal.
Bogarde’s fledgling acting career began on the stage but was soon interrupted by world war two, which he spent in uniform. On his return, he visits his old theatre, the Q Theatre, where Beatrice de Leon, ‘Beattie’, held sway, still there assessing a line-up of hopefuls. All those year ago Beattie had made Bogarde an offer: ‘Remember if you ever want to come back we’ll see what we can find for you.’ (p253) Bogarde continues:
PS: In Lord Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far, playing Lieutenant General Frederick 'Boy’ Browning, Dirk Bogarde was the only actor in the cast who had actually served in the battles depicted in the film.
The best parts of show business biographies, especially autobiographies, tend to be the early chapters dealing with childhood leading up to initial success as performers. Thereafter the narrative can often become an episodic account of events and accomplishments, many of which are already known. The stories can also be prone to name-dropping with tales of affairs and bad behaviour, which of course can be of interest, but are usually not as fresh or revealing as the early stuff. In this case Dirk Bogarde’s early years comprise the whole book.
From 1977 Bogarde produced a steam of eight autobiographical volumes of which this is the first.
For perspective, his life looks like this: childhood and adolescence fit neatly into the inter war period; he was a soldier in World War Two; a major British film star in light leading roles in the fifties; a very serious actor in the sixties; moving to France in 1966 where he spent the rest of his life; suffering a mild stroke in 1990; he was knighted rather belatedly in 1992 and died in 1998 at the age of 78.
Bogarde starts with his memories of pre-war rural England aged six to seven looking for a lost pet tortoise with his younger sister, an English childhood full of stuff now gone or peculiarly English. The family lived in an old cottage:
The kitchen was low and cool; white walls, pink brick floor. There was the smell of paraffin and butter and scrubbed wood and washing in the copper. Tea was scattered about the table, a plate of bread, the jam in a jar with a little white label saying summer 1929, a big brown teapot with a blue band, cups and saucers and Minnehaha, the cat, quietly washing her face. (p38)Dirk Bogarde’s childhood was a of a type long gone, a time when quite young children roamed unsupervised through the day, exploring the countywide and all it offered by way of field, forest and stream. For young Dirk and his sister it was also a world of new treats like tizer (p24) the new citrus flavoured soft drink, ‘Snofruit’ (p25) or ‘a stick of rock’ (p27). It also must be said that the pair were under the watchful eye, some of the time anyway, of Lally their nanny, and notable that the children spent remarkably little time with their parents, the bulk of the supervision falling to Lally, including during a family trip to France.
Dirk’s mother apparently could have had a career as an actor and his father was an arts journalist with The Times. One grandfather was a talented artist but it was a talent directed to creating forgeries. So on one level it is no wonder that Bogarde became an actor, artist (his pen and ink sketches illustrate the text) and writer, although, mercifully not that we are aware of, any criminal activity in these roles. It is notable though that Bogarde was coy, if not dissembling about his sexuality, never acknowledging that he was gay. This is understandable, given the time he lived in, which included the period when homosexuality remained illegal.
Bogarde’s fledgling acting career began on the stage but was soon interrupted by world war two, which he spent in uniform. On his return, he visits his old theatre, the Q Theatre, where Beatrice de Leon, ‘Beattie’, held sway, still there assessing a line-up of hopefuls. All those year ago Beattie had made Bogarde an offer: ‘Remember if you ever want to come back we’ll see what we can find for you.’ (p253) Bogarde continues:
It was a little over six years later that I took her up on her generous offer. On Demob leave, in my worn Service dress, a reasonable row of campaign medals on my chest, three pips on my shoulders [Captain] and ten shillings in my pocket, I stood in a line of elderly women whom she was interviewing for Char Ladies. Nothing had changed…As I reached her, last in the line, she looked up pleasantly from her little notebook. ‘Hullo dear,’ she said. ‘Been away?’ (p253).
PS: In Lord Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far, playing Lieutenant General Frederick 'Boy’ Browning, Dirk Bogarde was the only actor in the cast who had actually served in the battles depicted in the film.
May 1, 2015
1/5th of the way through; he's still about seven years old and I'm bored witless. Yet everyone claims this gets better?
Ok, it stopped being like Proust--but only around 70 percent of the way through. Interesting guy, obviously interesting life--but he's just barely acting, and we're only at the war. And we even skip that, and his British acting career, and go straight to his first experience in Hollywood?
How many more volumes?
Ok, it stopped being like Proust--but only around 70 percent of the way through. Interesting guy, obviously interesting life--but he's just barely acting, and we're only at the war. And we even skip that, and his British acting career, and go straight to his first experience in Hollywood?
How many more volumes?
July 30, 2020
A Postillion Struck by Lightning is the first part of Dirk Bogarde’s seven volume autobiography. First published as long ago as 1977, it has stood the test of time, has been widely read throughout its existence and has been reviewed, probably, hundreds, if not thousands of times. This, therefore, is not a review of the book, but a reflection on a particular aspect of it.
The first volume covers years of childhood, schooling, and finally professional stumbling towards what became a highly successful career in films. It might be said that Doug Bogarde had three different film carriers, a mass market, Mr. Clean in the Doctor films, the experimenting intellectual in his art house period and finally accomplished and internationally recognized character acting in his Death in Venice phase.
Here we have the idyllic childhood spent in the Sussex cottage or around Hampstead in North London. We have the failed school years where first nothing much interested him and then, during his time in a Glasgow technical school, when nothing at all interested him. He had to live with an aunt and uncle during those years in Scotland, and his only self-protection came by learning a Glaswegian accent.
He was born into a special family. His mother had been an actress, while his father was art critic at The Times. The surname originated in Belgium and his grandfather deliberately lost himself up-river in South America, only to return, old, aged, grumpy and cantankerous.
Dirk Bogarde’s prose is highly expressive and includes moments of vivid colour when events are magnified to significance. On country walks we share the vistas, smells, an occasional hug of an animal, always with something that amplifies the experience. We feel we personally get to know the tortoise. In later pages, he is already on stage, disdainful, he says, of any notion of stardom. He is happy to be doing what he does, and small venues in London, amateur to semiprofessional, will do. But we know what happened next.
But perhaps the most intriguing section in A Postillion Struck by Lightning happens in Glasgow, on a day when he is playing truant from school. In the 21st-century, the victim of sexual assault is granted whatever space is demanded to describe, relive, speculate, question, compensate, or indeed pursue -or indeed any verb that may be applicable – the recalled experience. In 1977 Dirk Bogarde relates his own experience from the 1930s in almost a bland, matter-of-fact way. It comes across almost as if It were a scene from one of his films. The detail of the assault can be experienced by reading the book, and it is essential that it is not described here because it has a theatrical character that itself is grounded in the cinema. It was, nevertheless, a real experience and a terrifying one as well. Now presumably, possibly, the perpetrator of this assault was still alive when this book was published, and yet there appears to be no record of the actor’s having pursued any action against his assailant.
One of the joys of reading is being presented with the surprising or the memorable. When I began A Postillion Struck by Lightning, I never for a moment thought I would be writing this kind of review.
The first volume covers years of childhood, schooling, and finally professional stumbling towards what became a highly successful career in films. It might be said that Doug Bogarde had three different film carriers, a mass market, Mr. Clean in the Doctor films, the experimenting intellectual in his art house period and finally accomplished and internationally recognized character acting in his Death in Venice phase.
Here we have the idyllic childhood spent in the Sussex cottage or around Hampstead in North London. We have the failed school years where first nothing much interested him and then, during his time in a Glasgow technical school, when nothing at all interested him. He had to live with an aunt and uncle during those years in Scotland, and his only self-protection came by learning a Glaswegian accent.
He was born into a special family. His mother had been an actress, while his father was art critic at The Times. The surname originated in Belgium and his grandfather deliberately lost himself up-river in South America, only to return, old, aged, grumpy and cantankerous.
Dirk Bogarde’s prose is highly expressive and includes moments of vivid colour when events are magnified to significance. On country walks we share the vistas, smells, an occasional hug of an animal, always with something that amplifies the experience. We feel we personally get to know the tortoise. In later pages, he is already on stage, disdainful, he says, of any notion of stardom. He is happy to be doing what he does, and small venues in London, amateur to semiprofessional, will do. But we know what happened next.
But perhaps the most intriguing section in A Postillion Struck by Lightning happens in Glasgow, on a day when he is playing truant from school. In the 21st-century, the victim of sexual assault is granted whatever space is demanded to describe, relive, speculate, question, compensate, or indeed pursue -or indeed any verb that may be applicable – the recalled experience. In 1977 Dirk Bogarde relates his own experience from the 1930s in almost a bland, matter-of-fact way. It comes across almost as if It were a scene from one of his films. The detail of the assault can be experienced by reading the book, and it is essential that it is not described here because it has a theatrical character that itself is grounded in the cinema. It was, nevertheless, a real experience and a terrifying one as well. Now presumably, possibly, the perpetrator of this assault was still alive when this book was published, and yet there appears to be no record of the actor’s having pursued any action against his assailant.
One of the joys of reading is being presented with the surprising or the memorable. When I began A Postillion Struck by Lightning, I never for a moment thought I would be writing this kind of review.
May 3, 2020
Dirk wore white socks: this is how celebrity autobiography should be - stylish, assured and witty, with not a trace of the ghosted backstabbing or preening self-regard that litters the genre. A masterclass in memoir.
August 29, 2022
It’s not the facts that explain who we are, it’s the story we tell ourselves and the feelings we had. This author knows that adage well.
This author breaks the rules regarding autobiographies. The author does not make his story a collection of facts or an essay on stamp collecting. It reads as well as Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. It’s not even necessary to have even ever heard of Dirk Bogarde to fully understand what he is getting at. Though it clearly helps to know that he became a fairly well-known actor.
The first part of the book is telling his personnel story through a “we” and the innocence of childhood, then the author briefly breaks the narrative and talks about how he feels about his life at the time he’s writing and how he became who he is, and then he returns to the narrative and his feelings about his “I” during the remaining part.
There’s an elegance to the method of his story telling while his story is presented as a universal story and gets at that always so common experience but seldom shared of growing up between the World Wars and the Englishness of the English at least through his very middle-class eyes.
Proust reflected on his reflections about his reflections while Bogarde doesn’t quite go that route, for example, there’s no eating of the Madeleine, but Bogarde’s book is just as cleverly written and has the advantage of having a likeable society in the background while for Proust almost everyone that was part of his society was a phony and unlikable while Bogarde relates a reality that we all can relate to excluding one truly horrifying experience involving dressing as a monster and being terrorized.
There are about seven more volumes to go in this series and I suspect they will all be as enjoyable as this one.
This author breaks the rules regarding autobiographies. The author does not make his story a collection of facts or an essay on stamp collecting. It reads as well as Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. It’s not even necessary to have even ever heard of Dirk Bogarde to fully understand what he is getting at. Though it clearly helps to know that he became a fairly well-known actor.
The first part of the book is telling his personnel story through a “we” and the innocence of childhood, then the author briefly breaks the narrative and talks about how he feels about his life at the time he’s writing and how he became who he is, and then he returns to the narrative and his feelings about his “I” during the remaining part.
There’s an elegance to the method of his story telling while his story is presented as a universal story and gets at that always so common experience but seldom shared of growing up between the World Wars and the Englishness of the English at least through his very middle-class eyes.
Proust reflected on his reflections about his reflections while Bogarde doesn’t quite go that route, for example, there’s no eating of the Madeleine, but Bogarde’s book is just as cleverly written and has the advantage of having a likeable society in the background while for Proust almost everyone that was part of his society was a phony and unlikable while Bogarde relates a reality that we all can relate to excluding one truly horrifying experience involving dressing as a monster and being terrorized.
There are about seven more volumes to go in this series and I suspect they will all be as enjoyable as this one.
April 20, 2012
The second half of this really made the whole book for me. All that idyllic nostalgia of the first half was very well but it was vaguely disturbing me how absent Dirk himself was in the narrative, and when he did allow himself to appear was with some fairly alarming sinister negativity.
But the Anthracite Years was where I really started to find this fascinating, perhaps because I always appreciate a realistic awakening to blissful ignorance. And watching this version of Dirk being pulled into awareness was an excellent journey, even if it traumatised me (and clearly him) severely at one point.
No doubt my enjoyment of the second half also found itself in the depiction of London during the war. I always am utterly enthralled by accounts of how the ordinary people went about their lives in the shadow of air raids and Nazism. This particular depiction of theatre life was a totally unexpected side I had never considered and am so glad I now know.
Inasmuch you can ever really believe anything Dirk writes. *eyes suspiciously* I kept thinking what a perfect example of creative non-fiction he is, the way he employs so much creative fictive techniques of description and imagery.
But especially I liked how subtle and slowly the structure of the entire book revealed itself, with its deliberate lacunae, dipping in and out of his life and all to ultimately bear out the conceit of the title. How marvellously clever of our Dirk. <3
But the Anthracite Years was where I really started to find this fascinating, perhaps because I always appreciate a realistic awakening to blissful ignorance. And watching this version of Dirk being pulled into awareness was an excellent journey, even if it traumatised me (and clearly him) severely at one point.
No doubt my enjoyment of the second half also found itself in the depiction of London during the war. I always am utterly enthralled by accounts of how the ordinary people went about their lives in the shadow of air raids and Nazism. This particular depiction of theatre life was a totally unexpected side I had never considered and am so glad I now know.
Inasmuch you can ever really believe anything Dirk writes. *eyes suspiciously* I kept thinking what a perfect example of creative non-fiction he is, the way he employs so much creative fictive techniques of description and imagery.
But especially I liked how subtle and slowly the structure of the entire book revealed itself, with its deliberate lacunae, dipping in and out of his life and all to ultimately bear out the conceit of the title. How marvellously clever of our Dirk. <3
April 25, 2019
I last read this when I was in my early teens, I think, and I didn't remember much of it. I was pleased to see a copy in the charity shop. Volume One of eight, I think!
The first half is a childhood memoir and the second half is about the horrible time he had at school when his parents decided he ought to be made to learn something, and then his first theatrical experiences just before the Second World War. He's an excellent writer, the childhood stuff is your quintessential liberal middle-class between the wars upbringing, all described beautifully.
The first half is a childhood memoir and the second half is about the horrible time he had at school when his parents decided he ought to be made to learn something, and then his first theatrical experiences just before the Second World War. He's an excellent writer, the childhood stuff is your quintessential liberal middle-class between the wars upbringing, all described beautifully.
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October 9, 2009A Postillion Struck by Lightning by Dirk Bogarde (1977)
November 25, 2020
Dirk Bogarde's first volume of autobiography, published originally in 1977, traces the first steps of a young actor who went on to achieve worldwide acclaim. The book has lovely illustrations and childhood photos.
I loved reading about his childhood amidst the enchanting beauty of rural Sussex, where his family lived in a rented cottage in the South Downs. It goes on to describes his forays on the stage with the local amateur dramatic society. and his experiences as a young actor before he became world-famous. You get a sense of the time as it then transports you back to London during the start of the Blitz and post-war Britain.
I have not read an autobiography of this standard and quality before.
I loved reading about his childhood amidst the enchanting beauty of rural Sussex, where his family lived in a rented cottage in the South Downs. It goes on to describes his forays on the stage with the local amateur dramatic society. and his experiences as a young actor before he became world-famous. You get a sense of the time as it then transports you back to London during the start of the Blitz and post-war Britain.
I have not read an autobiography of this standard and quality before.
October 5, 2021
This was a wonderfully evocative and expertly crafted narration by Dirk Bogarde on his early life up until his call up to the army in WW2. His memory and attention to the smallest details of his youthful years was astonishing, from his childhood in leafy Surrey, to his three miserable but formative years spent at a technical school in Glasgow, to his first forays into an acting career. Thoroughly recommended audiobook.
July 27, 2023
This was a wonderfully evocative and expertly crafted narration by Dirk Bogarde on his early life up until his call up to the army in WW2. His memory and attention to the smallest details of his youthful years was astonishing, from his childhood in leafy Surrey, to his three miserable but formative years spent at a technical school in Glasgow, to his first forays into an acting career. Thoroughly recommended audiobook.
June 7, 2020
Having seen about 27 Bogarde films to date, I'm a big fan, and find Bogarde to be a brilliant actor, but after reading the first volume of his memoirs, I'm convinced he's an even better writer. On to volume two...
April 25, 2021
I was watching a Dirk Bogarde movie on TCM, and I decided to look him up on Wikipedia. I learned that he wrote some acclaimed memoirs, so I decided to read his first. Boy am I glad. What a delightful read! He had a charmed childhood in the country. Better than most Hollywood memoirs.
January 2, 2024
Well written autobiography takes Bogarde through a summer childhood in a Sussex village and then a period from 13-16 in school in Glasgow and then college and first steps into professional acting until being called up at 19 in 1941.
August 22, 2019
This is not your every day biography. Bogarde is a very perceptive writer with a wonderful turn of phrase. Will certainly read more by him.
May 13, 2020
Effortlessly enjoyable especially the childhood romping in meadows & tormenting his sister, I'm irresistibly drawn on to vol 2 though I should read something different.
April 10, 2021
I was staggered by just how good a writer he is. Not sure why, just don't expect film stars to be this eloquent on paper
August 16, 2021
Absolutely wonderful. It's been stuck on my shelf for years, wish I'd read it sooner!
September 16, 2021
Utterly charming, devastating in parts and thoroughly enjoyable early years autobiography.
October 11, 2023
Really loved the earliest part, good child's eye view. Terrible time in Scotland. Interesting slice of life of the times.
November 2, 2023
I listened to the audio book and really enjoyed it. He has an amazing eye for detail and a great many stories to share.
July 10, 2024
Dirk Bogarde professional yapper (volume 1 of 7)
February 15, 2025
I nearly put this book back as I'm not a fan of biographys of famous people but this a fabulous book about people, relationships and a different pace of life.
February 19, 2025
More gayness.
March 11, 2017
A very good and lyrical narration of a rural childhood(mostly) between the wars, then the glasgow school of Hard knocks, and what he really was born to be, an actor, and the outbreak of war.
Well written a great read , though why he was at times as he would say himself he was so beastly to his sister is beyond me.
Well written a great read , though why he was at times as he would say himself he was so beastly to his sister is beyond me.
December 3, 2021
A very interesting biographical book - written from such an early age. Captivating and well written; I look forward to reading more of the biographical series.
May 6, 2013
I finally finished Dirk Bogarde’s “A Postillion Struck By Lightning.” It’s the first of the actor’s eight volumes of memoirs, and I’m always interested in people who have multi-volume autobiographies, because I wonder how on earth they have so much to say about their lives.
This was not one of those typical “And-then-I-slept-with,” dictated-to-a-ghost-writer, celebrity autobiographies. Indeed, it’s more properly a memoir, rather than an autobiography, because though it covers Bogarde’s life from about 1932 to 1960, it doesn’t mention every single thing that happened to him in that period. Instead, it offers up fascinating episodes: his idyllic childhood summers in rural England, his Dickensian school days in Scotland, his first two years in the theatre, the advent of World War II, and finally, skipping ahead twenty years, his unpleasant initial experiences in Hollywood.
Had Bogarde not been a gifted actor, I think he could easily have supported himself as a novelist. This book reads like a delicately-crafted novel, and the pictures he creates for the reader are so clear, so well-observed, that I think Bogarde must either have had a superb memory, a great talent for imagination, or a combination of both.
I look forward to reading his other works—memoirs, novels, essays, and letters—in the future.
This was not one of those typical “And-then-I-slept-with,” dictated-to-a-ghost-writer, celebrity autobiographies. Indeed, it’s more properly a memoir, rather than an autobiography, because though it covers Bogarde’s life from about 1932 to 1960, it doesn’t mention every single thing that happened to him in that period. Instead, it offers up fascinating episodes: his idyllic childhood summers in rural England, his Dickensian school days in Scotland, his first two years in the theatre, the advent of World War II, and finally, skipping ahead twenty years, his unpleasant initial experiences in Hollywood.
Had Bogarde not been a gifted actor, I think he could easily have supported himself as a novelist. This book reads like a delicately-crafted novel, and the pictures he creates for the reader are so clear, so well-observed, that I think Bogarde must either have had a superb memory, a great talent for imagination, or a combination of both.
I look forward to reading his other works—memoirs, novels, essays, and letters—in the future.
April 24, 2014
Deceptively clever and thoroughly well written memoir. Dirk tells a very clear, strong story and with a deliberate structure (which he refers to at beginning of the book), along the way giving wonderful descriptions and uses language so creatively and beautifully. There's also a lovely sense of some historical aspects from the early 20 century. Before reading this book I saw reviews claiming that Dirk is so brilliant at this genre. Well, having read it now I have to agree. One thing I learnt for my own writing from this book, was that you really can tell the reader so much with such few words. But to do this you have to be very good! I hope I become this good in my own memoirs.
I'm now on the hunt for more of Dirk's books.
I'm now on the hunt for more of Dirk's books.
April 27, 2008
Have begun rereading Dirk Bogarde's autobiographical works, with this, the first installment. The reminiscences are vaguely thematic, based as they are around Mr. Bogarde's early golden years. The childhood he led must have been idyllic, and was from the way he sets it out in this book. In the later books in the sequence things take a different turn. In this all is rosy and rose-tinted. Enjoyable.
November 29, 2013
An idyllic childhood glowingly described in loving detail leads to a short sharp account of his toughening up in Glasgow. Then a quick gallop through the beginnings of a stage career before being called up into the army. Instant cut to being in Hollywood - one chapter, the end. Did the editor slash everything between as too boring, or what? The beginning was lovely, but I wish I hadn't bothered with the rest.
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