Marilyn Monroe - Her Films Her Life - by Michelle Vogel

I apologise that it has taken so long for me to review this book, this is due to my holiday to Madeira, my attempting a 365 photo challenge via Blipfoto and various other excuses - because that's all they are excuses. Right down to business.

When I first received this book to be honest I wasn't over impressed and this is down to the publisher, for the price (around £33) I admit I was expecting a large, glossy coffee table book, this isn't. it is a little smaller than A4. Upon opening the cover to read I found that the type of card stock used for the cover curls very easily as does the rest of the pages and I had to flatten in between 2 heavy books in order to take the photo of the cover. Inside there are no colour or glossy photos which isn't a problem at all, although the photos used a pretty much stock images that have been used dozens of times before.

This of course has nothing to do with the quality of the writing inside the book:

When I first started reading I thought 'yes ok I know all this' and I really thought that I would not learn anything at all from this book. I was wrong, peppered throughout are facts about the films I had never learnt before. For instance, I never knew that Marilyn's character in Dangerous Years was originally slated to be a secretary - did you?

cont....

 The cover of Michelle Vogel's book uses an image form my favourite of Marilyn's films and my favourite musical number

2 images from Bus Stop

And that is what this book is like, you'll be reading and along pops a little bit of personal information, an anecdote you have never heard from those who knew her, or a fact about one of the films.

And that is what makes this book worth buying. I'm not going to go into the theories of her death that are held by the author because although her death is mentioned in the book this books if about her work and her life - not her death. And there have been so many different theories pertaining to her death and we all have our own theories that Michelle's theories are not going to change mine - at least not without hard evidence.

All in all - definitely a book worth adding to the collection, but the price may put you off 

3.5/5 

Click HERE to purchase from Amazon UK

Click HERE to purchase from Amazon US