2008 softcover with 318 pages in good secondhand condition.

The story begins in 1983 with a famously weeping Attenborough accepting two Oscars when his film Gandhi broke all previous records to win a total of eight Academy awards. Hawkins, 67, is Attenboroughs publicist, confidante, co-producer and long-term business partner.

Attenborough will reflect on the highs and lows of a long life both in and out of the public gaze. Few know, for instance, that he once risked prison on a matter of conscience or that, as an air-gunner cameraman, he took part in bombing raids over Germany during the war. More poignantly, Attenborough will finally break his silence about his long-running friendship with Princess Diana, and the tsunami tragedy that robbed him of his eldest daughter and granddaughter in December 2004.

At 82, Richard Attenborough is the celebrity peer, happily married since 1945, reflecting on a lifetime of ceaseless activity as a film-star, director, producer, company chairman and charitable campaigner.