Winston Graham's memoirs have been consigned to his safe for years. Here, at last, they are shared with his readers in a remarkable book, free of what he called 'the fashionable sins', but rich in charm and anecdote. Memoirs of a Private Man follows the rise of a delicate Manchester lad from the isolation of Cornwall to fame and the glittering London film scene. Its pages are peopled by luminaries, among them Alfred Hitchcock, who turned Graham's best-selling novel, Marnie , into a classic film, Gregory Peck, and Somerset Maugham. Graham's is a life of success, often excess, yet he never loses sight of its foundations: his love of his wife Jean, companion of fifty years, and his love of words. His memoirs offer an insight into the unassuming side of the writer whose bestselling novels and their television adaptations have won over the hearts of millions. 'To read his memoir is to meet a charming, decent, old-fashioned sort of character with an enormous capacity for friendship and a wonderful interest in other people ...Every gentle page offers us a shining example of prolific creativity and a good life well-lived' Val Hennessy, Daily Mail 'A must for Poldark fans ...His essential niceness shines through in this endearingly self-effacing autobiography' Maggie Pringle, Express