Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind. Bloomsbury. Sex, drugs, movies and maniacs. What more do you want from a book? This is a wonderfully readable book about Hollywood in the 70s and how the movie brats changed the face of the industry, men like Spielberg, Lucas, Coppolla and Scorcese. Written by an entertainment journalist with a wonderful insight, it describes their rise, the struggles with the studios, the sex scandals, copious drug taking and the birth of films like The Godfather, Star Wars, Jaws and Apocalypse Now. Biskind also outlines how some of the principal characters lost the plot completely. Quite how he gets away with telling some of these stories I don't know! Outrageous, witty, disturbing and utterly compelling!

Sergio Leone by Christopher Frayling. Faber & Faber. He made the classic Dollars trilogy, the seminal western Once Upon a Time in the West and the ultimate gangster movie - a homage to old America and the movies - Once Upon a Time in America. And now, Frayling has written the first biography of this great director. It is an enthralling book, an insight into the mind of a controversial film-maker, an examination of Italian cinema and a study of his collaborators. They include writers and the legendary composer Ennio Morricone. Leone doesn't come out unscathed - there are many criticisms aimed at the man and his style from his friends and colleagues. A truly great work to complement a brilliant director.

Bette & Joan: The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine. Warner. What happens when two great stars with overbearing personalities collide? Here it is in all its glorious, vicious, high camp detail - the life-long battle between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. The former was the glamorous, man-grabbing box office champ, the other the greater and more natural actress. It appears their feud was based on jealousy but it was Davis who felt it the most, according to Considine's excellent book. He provides us not just with an account of the feud but with potted biographies of both women, comparing and contrasting their childhoods, Hollywood experiences, relationships with men and eventual declines. The highlight, of course, comes with his description of their experiences together on Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the aborted Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte. I promise, you will not be able to put this down!

Ramon Novarro by Allan R Ellenberger. McFarland. Here's a book which promises much but doesn't quite deliver the goods, which is a great shame. Novarro was one of the great stars of the silent and early talkies era in Hollywood, a dashing, romantic, Latin leading man who had his greatest moment as Ben Hur. By the mid 1930s, his career was in decline and he left MGM. After that his appearances were few and far between and by the 1960s he was more often on TV. However, his death bought him back to the front pages when he was murdered by a pair of male prostitutes at his home. Ellenberger's book concentrates on Novarro's career, which is all very well but one doesn't really feel you know the man by the time you get to the end. Only briefly are we treated to the reasons behind his alcoholism and the contradiction between Novarro the gay man and Novarro the devout catholic. Great for a look at old Hollywood, disappointing as a study of the man.

The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo. HarperCollins. Russo's classic examination of homosexuality on the silver screen stretches from the earliest days of movie-making to the mid 1980s. It is both illuminating and frustrating. It shows how Hollywood has consistently failed to accurately reflect the gay and lesbian experience on film and, worse, how it has reinforced and perpetuated dangerously out-dated stereotypes. Russo also shows how sympathetic writers and directors managed, with subtlety, to bring gay elements into their films without breaking the strict Hollywood production code which forbade the portrayal or mention of homosexuality. Russo's anger is clear at the treatment of gays and it sometimes overwhelms his text but that does not diminish the importance of his work. One wonders how Russo, who died in 1990, would look upon the output of Hollywood in the 90s... Buy in the US

George III: A Personal History by Christopher Hibbert. Penguin. One of the longest-reigning British monarchs was famous for two things - going mad and losing the American War of Independence. But Hibbert's book rightly points out that there was far more to the king who ruled for 60 years. His touching portrait leaves politics, government, diplomacy and social issues in the background and concentrates instead on painting a picture of the man, his wife and family and the court he dominated. What emerges is a charismatic figure, on the one hand deeply devoted to his people and destiny, but on the other a detached and often unpleasant family man. Despite the illness and his failures in America, George was genuinely mourned on his death by people who recognised his essential decency and common sense.

The Assassination of Marilyn Monroe by Donald H Wolfe. Warner. No guesses as to how Wolfe thinks Monroe met her death. This is, of course, just the latest in a long line of books about the celebrated actress/model/20th century icon. But Wolfe claims to have new information from witnesses who have previously not come forward. Whether you believe his conclusion - it's pretty remarkable and I can't say I'm particularly convinced - is up to you but he provides plenty of evidence. And if you have never read a book about Monroe before, this provides an extensive biography in between the conspiracy theory. It reads like a first-rate thriller.

Wisecracker by William J Mann. Viking. You'd never know it but William Haines was once the top box office draw in the US - back in the era when talkies were just coming into vogue. Haines - a wisecracking romantic lead - was Hollywood's first openly gay star and it's long been argued that his sudden fall was because he refused his studio's demands to live a straight life. Mann probes this colourful man's life, from Hollywood hero to celebrated interior decorator, with considerable feeling. It's highly readable but the author seems keen to paint seemingly every actor you've ever heard of as gay! Whether they were or not, I don't know but it seems to me he's taken a lot of rumour as fact here. Still, it's juicy stuff... Buy in the US

Siegfried Sassoon: The Making of a War Poet by Jean Moorcroft Wilson. Duckworth. If anyone wants a lesson in how to write biography, then this is the book to read. It represents the author's first volume of the great war poet's life, from his birth in 1886 to the end of his war service in 1918. She paints a picture of a divided personality - on the one hand a sensitive man who loved art, nature and the beauty of the countryside, on the other a decorated war hero whose exploits in the trenches earned him the nickname Mad Jack. This is a fascinating story, tracing the colourful lives of Sassoon's forebears, his life at home and school, to his development as a writer of angry anti-war poems and his legendary meeting with Wilfred Owen. She also outlines his struggle with his homosexuality and describes vividly the dreadful experiences of Sassoon and his fellow men in the Great War. An excellent book.

Alfred C Kinsey: A Public/Private Life by James H Jones. Norton. One of several recent biographies of the sex expert, this is a mammoth work of scholarship that seems to leave nothing in Kinsey's life untouched. Not just a biography, this goes into great detail about Kinsey's approach to his subject, his ground-breaking surveys on human sexuality and more. What emerges leaves you questionning a lot of the conclusions in his reports but the fact that he brought the whole subject out into the open is enough to make him a bit of a star. We also learn a lot more about the private Kinsey - a man who indulged in gay sex, co-hosted orgies with his wife and did some painful-sounding things with toothbrushes! Fascinating.

Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998 by David Ehrenstein. Don't expect a linear history of gay movies, actors and directors from this work for Ehrenstein adopts an essay-style approach to his subject. He prefers to question why we are so fascinated with the sexuality of our screen heroes, why so many gay stars can flourish in a world often hostile to homosexuality and how gay Hollywood has shaped our culture. At times the author's arguments can get a little impenetrable but on the whole it is thought-provoking stuff. Don't come here looking for a load of dirt on your favourite stars cos you won't find it and you may well find that, although he claims to cover the period from 1928, there is precious little here on Hollywood's so-called golden age. Buy in the US

Howard Hughes: The Untold Story by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H Broeske. Warner Books. So many myths have grown up around reclusive and deluded billionaire Hughes that it's difficult to know where to begin. What was the truth behind those last pitiful years? What was it about his fascination with the starlets? Did he have a love affair with Cary Grant? The authors try their best to strip away the rumours to get to the facts about the industrialist/inventor/dare-devil pilot/film-maker and prefer to concentrate more on his private life than the professional. It's a gripping story and told in a rip-roaring style.

The Dark Side of Genius by Donald Spoto. An intelligent examination of Alfred Hitchcock - the man and his films - with much analysis of his motives in dealing with numerous blonde actresses.
Rebel by Donald Spoto. One of the author's numerous showbiz biographies. A little formulaic but a useful insight into the bisexual actor, his films and legacy if you've yet to catch up with him.
Elizabeth I by Anne Somerset. How a woman succeeded in a man's world. This is a great biography of the 16th century English queen, examining her political achievements and the minefield of her private life.
Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams by Lyle Leverich. The first volume of Leverich's study of Williams' life takes us up to The Glass Menagerie. Brilliantly written, insightful and comprehensive. And the fact the author knew his subject does not mean this is a whitewash. Can't wait for the second volume.
My Dark Places by James Ellroy. Ellroy employs a private detective and goes in search of the truth behind his own mother's murder, committed when he was a boy. In turn he must confront truths about himself.
Take it Like a Man by Boy George. The Culture Club singer and DJ spares himself no blushes in this account of his life - a punk child, his rise to fame, being gay and his descent into a drugs hell.