During the Second World War, Air Commodore Waltby is flying to Allied Command Headquarters with an attaché case packed with information that could stave off an invasion by Germany. Unfortunately, his plane is shot down and he and three colleagues are left drifting in a lifeboat in the North Sea - with the vital intelligence reports still not in the hands of Allied Command. As the Allied authorities direct the search, the four men are edging closer to death and the Germans are planning their assault.

Collection of eleven classic films from influential filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. 'The Battle of the River Plate' (1956) tells the true story of the famous 1939 naval battle. Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch) is captaining the crack German battleship Graf Spee through the South Atlantic, unaware that a small number of lightweight British battle cruisers are hot on his trail. When the British cruisers manage to trap the powerful German ship in the Uruguayan harbour of Montevideo, they attempt to trick Langsdorff into believing that an entire battle fleet is waiting to destroy his vessel at sea. In 'A Canterbury Tale' (1944), a British sergeant, a land girl and a United States Army officer arrive at a Kent village on the same train. The newcomers are brought face to face with the bizarre menace causing bewilderment in the tight-knit community: someone is pouring glue onto the hair of girls who dare to venture out at night with visiting servicemen. Powell and Pressburger offered this 'propaganda' piece as their contribution to the war effort, but the authorities were unsure how its oddball tone would go down with the Allies. In '49th Parallel' (1941), Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard are among the stars who try to prevent Nazi sailors, from a sunken U-Boat, reaching neutral USA through Canada in this classic war film, which was intended to persuade America to join World War II. Pressburger won an Academy Award for the story and the film was directed by Powell. In 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945), a woman (Wendy Hiller) has always known what she wanted in life, and now she is about to marry a millionaire. But when she ends up stranded on a Hebredian island due to a storm, she begins to see things a little differently. 'Ill Met By Moonlight' (1957) was the final film created by Powell and Pressburger together. Set on the island of Crete during the Nazi occupation, the film stars Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley as British officers assigned to kidnap the German commander-in-chief General Kreipe (Marius Goring) and spirit him back to Cairo. If successful, the morale of the Germans would be weakened and the resistance would be stronger. But once he is captured, the British officers have to get him past German patrols at almost every turning. In 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' (1943), stuffy ex-soldier Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) recalls his career which began as a dashing officer in the Boer War. As a young man he lost the woman he loved (Deborah Kerr, who plays three roles) to a Prussian officer (Anton Walbrook), whom he fought in a duel only to become lifelong friends with. Candy cannot help but feel that his notions of honour and chivalry are out of place in modern warfare. The film's title comes from 'Evening Standard' cartoonist David Low's satirical comic creation, Colonel Blimp. In 'The Red Shoes' (1948), ballet impressario Boris Lermontov (Walbrook) hires up-and-coming ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) and talented young composer Julian Craster (Goring) to work with him on a new ballet, an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story 'The Red Shoes'. The show is a great success and Victoria and Julian fall in love, but Boris is jealous and makes moves to spoil their happiness. 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1946) is a classic wartime propaganda movie, commissioned by the Ministry of Information, but turned into a fantastical allegory by the Archers, aka Powell and Pressburger. David Niven plays an RAF pilot who is ready to be picked up by the angels after bailing out of his plane. But an administrative error in Heaven leads to a temporary reprieve, during which he must prove his right to stay on Earth. A tribunal in heaven ensues to decide the case. In 'They're a Weird Mob' (1966), Nino Culotta (Walter Chiari) is an Italian immigrant who arrives in Australia with the promise of a job as a journalist on his cousin's magazine, only to find that when he gets there the magazine has folded, the cousin has done a runner and the money his cousin sent for the fare was borrowed from the daughter of the boss of a local construction firm. 'The Tales of Hoffman' (1951) is an adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera and follows Hoffman's (Robert Rounseville) tales of his love for the doll Olympia, the courtesan Giuletta (Ludmilla Tcherina) and the frail diva Antonia (Anne Ayars), and of how his quest for the eternal woman was always thwarted by evil. Finally, in 'Black Narcissus' (1946), a group of British nuns are sent into the Himalayas to set up a mission in what was once the harem's quarters of an ancient palace. The clear mountain air, the unfamiliar culture and the unbridled sensuality of a young prince (Sabu) and his beggar-girl lover (Jean Simmons) begin to play havoc with the nuns' long-suppressed emotions. Whilst the young Mother Superior, Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), fights a losing battle for order, the jaunty David Farrar falls in love with her, sparking uncontrollable jealousy in another nun, Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron).

During the Second World War, Air Commodore Waltby is flying to Allied Command Headquarters with an attaché case packed with information that could stave off an invasion by Germany. Unfortunately, his plane is shot down and he and three colleagues are left drifting in a lifeboat in the North Sea - with the vital intelligence reports still not in the hands of Allied Command. As the Allied authorities direct the search, the four men are edging closer to death and the Germans are planning their assault.

British-made action film set in Canada and starring Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, James Robertson Justice and Sid James. Adapted from the bestselling adventure novel by Hammond Innes, the film tells the story of terminally-ill Scottish oil prospector Bruce Campbell (Bogarde), who strikes more than just oil when he digs deep in the Canadian Rockies.

The final film created by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (their partnership having previously produced 'A Matter of Life and Death', 'The Red Shoes' and 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'). Set on the island of Crete during the Nazi occupation, the film stars Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley as British officers assigned to kidnap the German commander-in-chief General Kreipe (Marius Goring) and spirit him back to Cairo. If successful, the morale of the Germans would be weakened and the resistance would be stronger. But once he is captured, the British officers have to get him passed German patrols at almost every turning.

An epic film that re-creates in stunning detail one of the most disastrous battles of World War 2, A Bridge Too Far is a spectacular war picture.

Painstakingly recreated; on actual battlefield locations and boasting a remarkable cast, A Bridge Too Far accurately recaptures the monumental scope, excitement and danger behind one of the biggest military gambles in history.

In September 1944, flush with success after the Normandy Invasion. the Allies confidently launched Operation Market Garden, a wild scheme intended to put an early end to the fighting by invading Germany and smashing the Reich's war plants. But a combination of battlefield politics, faulty intelligence, bad luck and even worse weather led to disaster beyond the Allies' darkest fears.

1950s suspense thriller starring Dirk Bogarde as a wanted man. Hapless murderer Chris Lloyd (Dirk Bogarde) takes flight from his crime with 6-year-old witness Robbie (Jon Whiteley) in tow. As they head towards the Scottish border, the fugitive begins to strike up a relationship with the boy, who has problems of his own.

______________ First published in 1977, A Postillion Struck by Lightning is volume one of Dirk Bogarde's best-selling memoirs. Following Bogarde from childhood through adolescence, to the beginnings of his budding career, A Postillion Struck by Lightning is a heartfelt memoir, offering insight into what created the drive and charisma that eventually made him a star. Dreamy, sun-soaked summers full of freedom spent with his younger sister are mixed with holidays in France and rambling the countryside. Writing plays instead of playing sports, Dirk's talents lay in the creativity of painting and expression rather than in the precision of maths or science, much to the growing concern of his parents. Packed off to live with relatives in Scotland, his father hoped that a proper Scottish education would equip his son to follow in his footsteps for a career in Newspapers. In Scotland, Dirk learned to defend himself, to sound like a native Glaswegian, and to hide his intense homesickness. In essence; he learned to act.

Junior doctor Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) gains a position at St Swithin's Hospital in London and ends up sharing 'digs' with a bunch of slightly older young medics, all of whom have failed the previous year on account of their inability to keep to the curriculum. Sparrow tries to find a balance between the antics of his new peers and the ever-terrifying Sir Lancelot Spratt, chief surgeon at St Swithin's and a man on the lookout for miscreant doctors wherever they may be. Menaced by the advances of his landlady's daughter, and feelings for one of the nurses, will Sparrow be able to qualify?

________________ 'Absorbing... his gift for dialogue is exceptional' - The Observer ________________ First published in 1983, An Orderly Man is volume three of Dirk Bogarde's best-selling memoirs. After completing work on Visconti's Death in Venice, the celebrated actor seeks a refuge from 20 years of 'continual motion'. This dream of a peaceful retreat materialises itself in the form of a neglected farmhouse in the South of France. However, before he is rewarded with the calm he craves, he is forced to endure the relative evils of dying olive trees and the rampaging mistral. In this pursuit of the tranquil, Bogarde manages to portray the simplest of issues in the most delicate and humane way. This volume also covers the years in which Dirk Bogarde gave some of his finest acting performances and began his career as a gifted writer, imposing order on a rich and varied life.

Richard Attenborough and Jack Warner star in this late 1940s British drama set in a reform school for boys. After being caught and sent to a borstal for three years because of his involvement in a robbery, teenager Jackie Knowles (Attenborough) makes friends with fellow juvenile delinquents Alfie (Dirk Bogarde) and Bill (Jimmy Hanley). Meanwhile, the reformatory govenor (Warner) attempts to keep the boys under control.

Classic British drama with Dirk Bogarde in his first starring role. In late-19th Century England, a dashing squire (Bogarde) impregnates one of his servants (Kathleen Ryan). In the face of local disapproval, the maid determines to bring up the child on her own.

Three classic films adapted from novels by Charles Dickens. In 'A Tale of Two Cities' (1958), Sydney Carton (Dirk Bogarde) is a frivolous London barrister, hopelessly in love with Lucie (Dorothy Tutin), even after she marries Charles Darnay (Paul Guers), who is descended from an unpleasant French aristocrat. Darnay is lured back to France as the Revolution gets into swing where he is arrested and awaits execution. Sydney, seeing Lucie's despair, goes to France, frees Charles and takes his place in the queue for the guillotine. In 'Oliver Twist' (1948), Oliver (John Howard Davis) is a young orphan boy who is expelled from the workhouse run by Mr Bumble (Francis L. Sullivan). After becoming an apprentice to an undertaker Oliver decides to run away to London, only to meet the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and fall amongst his gang of thieves, led by the scheming Fagin (Alec Guinness). Finally, in 'Great Expectations' (1946), orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) befriends an escaped convict before being elevated to higher circles as the companion of mad Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt) and her niece, Estella (Jean Simmons), with whom the boy quickly falls in love. When the adult Pip (John Mills) discovers a mysterious benefactor has paved the way for him to become a gentleman, he assumes Miss Havisham is responsible.

Adventure drama about a man who travels to post-colonial Africa to visit his brother, only to find he has been killed by a Kenyan rebel group. When Alan Howard (Dirk Bogarde) arrives in Africa, he soon learns his brother has been killed by the Mau Mau, a group of rebels who are fighting against the newly imposed rule of the white man. Enraged by his brother's murder, Alan decides to stay and put all his energy into fighting the Mau Mau, who he now considers his enemy. However, along the way he falls in love with a neighbouring settler called Mary (Virginia McKenna), who disagrees with his abhorrence of the native people, and tries to put an end to his prejudices.

First published in 1997, this is Dirk Bogarde's sixth and final novel. The Grayles have lived at Hartleap since Canute. They know this and are proud of the fact. Now they stand around the deathbed of their longest-serving nanny who is about to slip away. Ada Stephens - known as Nanny Grayle and well into her nineties - will not go quietly. In the strange clarity that comes with the last remission, she looks at the saddened faces about her and surprises them all. She says that the most adored of her charges, Rufus, is 'tainted' and that his father, the revered war hero 'Beau' Grayle, was 'wicked'. None of them is going to get anything in her will - she has left everything to her nephew, Robert. Thus begins the final demolition of a once-proud house. Slowly, from Sunday to Thursday, as they attend to the many small duties that follow death, dark secrets unravel. The family must face the fact that their way of life, and the glory that was Hartleap, will slide into Nanny's grave with her. As terrible truths become known, they must desperately try to close ranks.

First published in 1994, this is Dirk Bogarde's fifth novel. Following on from his previous novel, Jericho, evoking the manifold themes and compelling rural French atmosphere of its predecessor, A Period of Adjustment tells the story of William Caldicott. Still recovering from his ruined marriage and the tragic death of his estranged brother, William attempts to build a new life in the south of France with his young son. However, he soon finds himself being attacked from another, far too personal front. A moving depiction of loss, pain, family and life's dramas, A Period of Adjustment is a beautifully crafted portrait of optimism and the endurance of the human spirit.

_______________ 'An absorbing volume' - The Spectator _______________ First published in 1989, A Particular Friendship is a collection of letters following Dirk Bogarde's first four memoirs. 'London guests staying hate it. Keeps them awake all night they complain. The bleating in the utter stillness. I heal with it, as you did.' This epistolary collection finds Bogarde at his most honest and touching, engaging in conversation with a woman he has never met and whose only interest in him comes from the simple fact that he now happens to live in a house that she once owned. These letters provide an insight into the wit and intelligence of a great man without the stifling constraints of other literary forms. It presents us with a platform and a relationship that allows Bogarde to freely reminisce, discuss politics, gossip about those around him and provide razor-sharp cameo portraits of the famous. The correspondences were all written before Bogarde saw himself as an author and stand as a testament to his literary talent, domestic sensibilities, and his unquestionable compassion in sharing so much with a complete stranger.

First published in 1978, Snakes and Ladders is volume two of Dirk Bogarde's best-selling memoirs Snakes and Ladders follows Bogarde from the challenges of his army training camp at Catterick, through the horrors of war, to his glittering - if often trying - film career. We see the thoughtful boy finding his way alongside his fellow recruits, to emerge from the war a thoughtful man, shaped in many ways by his harrowing experiences. Somewhat falling into his career, Dirk struggled with the demands that such great success brings with it. With personal insight into his close friendship with Judy Garland, his working method with Visconti, and his many vital relationships with friends and family, Snakes and Ladders sheds an honest and not always flattering light on his life.

First published in 1984, this is Dirk Bogarde's third novel. Set in the shadow of Hollywood opulence - the gaudy wastes of Los Angeles - West of Sunset is a sharp and potent satire of movie-making America. However, the excessive glitter is embedded in a deeper plot about a successful man's fall from grace. Hugo Arlington, a celebrated young writer, had the power to destroy people. His widow, Alice, is not the only person to be haunted by his death and life, and gradually the truth about the dangerous games Hugo played comes to light, and the past comes crashing into the present. West of Sunset is an amusing and rich depiction of a world that Bogarde himself came to know and loathe.

First published 1981, this is Dirk Bogarde's second novel. The fabulous but wavering old Lady "Cuckoo" Peverill, lives with her husband, Napoleon-mad military historian, Archie. Dissatisfied and overcome by sheer boredom, she ventures down to the lake at the edge of their estate, pockets filled with stones, she begins to walk into the water. Before she is too deeply submerged, she is pulled away by sparsely-clothed drifter, Marcus Pollock. Feigning that he merely saved her from an 'accident', he is brought back to the villa, where he moves in. Cue the arrival of Marcus' girlfriend, as well as a whole horde of eccentric film-makers and you have the stage set for an effortlessly entertaining story. Set in Cap Ferrat, in one of the last great villas of the twenties, Voices in the Garden is a heart-felt tale of mature and immature love.

First published in 1991, this is Dirk Bogarde's fourth novel. With his divorce proceedings looming, writer William Caldicott is in desperate need of some respite. As fate would have it, he receives a cryptic letter of farewell from his estranged brother James, along with the keys to James' house in France. Sensing the potentially reformative aspect of such a break, William sets out in search of his brother. He rapidly becomes embedded in the fabric of rural France, learning that rumours travel quickly, and that connections and secrets are paramount. He eventually finds the remarkable little house, but as he delves deeper and deeper into his brother's strange life, William discovers things that will make him wish he stayed at home.

In 1988 Dirk Bogarde returned from two idyllic decades in France to live in England. Shortly afterwards, the then Literary Editor of the "Daily Telegraph, "admiring the 'lucid frankness' of Bogarde's memoirs, invited him to review some books for the newspaper. Over the next eight years or so, Bogarde wrote much of the criticism, essays, obituaries, fragments of autobiography and appreciations which are collected in this volume - a body of work that offers fascinating insights into the life, mind and views of one of Britain's most admired authors and actors.Perhaps the central piece in the book is the now-famous article 'A Short Walk from Harrods', which Bogarde wrote for the "Independent on Sunday "soon after returning to London. In it he describes what it feels like to walk among familiar ghosts and to dine with those he considers 'the living dead'. A momentous review of three Holocaust books is accompanied by an article in which he describes the extraordinary postbag he received from its readers. In another piece which had a profound impact, he gives forceful vent to his support for euthanasia.But as well as the dark and the controversial, there are also charming and touching essays on his earliest childhood; reflections on the not-quite-ruined Riviera, where the magic still exists ('It will always be, for all time, better than Rio, or Hong Kong, or Bermuda, or anywhere else in the world'); and on friends and colleagues from his career as an actor Joseph Losey, Charlotte Rampling, Luchino Visconti and Brigitte Bardot.With a specially written introduction and new reflections on several of the pieces, "For the Time Being "brings together virtually all the work of Dirk Bogarde published outside his novels and autobiographies. It stands as a testimony to a wonderfully varied life, a wide range of interests and sympathies, and a remarkable gift for writing.

Originally published in 1980, this is Dirk Bogarde's first novel. In the uneasy aftermath of WWII, a group of ordinary British soldiers and their families find themselves stationed as peacekeepers at an outpost in the Java Sea. Whilst attempting to return the island to Dutch control, they are subject to violent attacks by the locals who want their freedom. As the Empire crumbles, the island is plunged into chaos and violence amidst a nationalist uprising. Selfishness, sex, greed, fear and revenge, all play their part; though so too do the finer instincts of love, loyalty and concern. At times gloriously funny, never sitting in judgement, Dirk Bogarde portrays mankind's fallible, complex humanity as the thin skin of conventional behaviour, tautened in the corrosive atmosphere of Southeast Asia, gradually begins to split.

_______________ 'The autobiography comes full circle - appropriately enough, because this is a book in which people come to terms with the past, make peace with inner demons, learn to say goodbye to loved ones and become sensitive, caring human beings' - The Independent _______________ First published in 1993, A Short Walk from Harrods is volume six of Dirk Bogarde's best-selling memoirs. Forced into returning to London because of his manager and his partner's rapidly deteriorating health, Bogarde must re-adapt to life in the West London neighbourhoods that groomed him as an aspiring young actor. But with his fame fading and his descent into old age, the entire process becomes rather difficult to endure. He stalks the streets like an 'apologetic turtle' and avoids society, announcing with his effortless wit that he shall, from then on, only do 'matinees' because he is too tired to go out in the evenings. Although this memoir finds Bogarde at his most vulnerable, he retains the lucidity and charm that makes his writing so enjoyable. As ever, he expresses a deep sentimentality that ensures no detail goes unnoticed or unfelt.

________________ 'He has brought back a land of lost content, and its lamps still shine' - TLS ________________ First published in 1992, Great Meadow is volume five of Bogarde's best-selling memoirs. Employing both the language and lucidity of the young boy that he evokes, the actor turned author, Dirk Bogarde, presents us with a charming recollection of his childhood. From 1927 to 1934 he lived in a remote cottage in the Sussex Downs with his sister Elizabeth and their strict but loving nanny, Lally. For the children it was an idyllic time of joy and adventure: of gleaning at the end of summer, of oil lamps and wells, of harvests and harvest mice in the Great Meadow. With great sensitivity and poignancy, this memoir captures the sounds and scents, the love and gentleness that surrounded the young boy as the outside world prepared to go to war.