Scribblings reveal the complex man behind the actor

Ever, Dirk: The Bogarde Letters. Edited by John Coldstream, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, €33.75

We don’t write letters any more, it’s all e-mails and text messages now, a technological development that adds considerably to the sense of romance and intimacy in John Coldstream’s edited collection of actor Dirk Bogarde’s correspondence.

Coldstream, Bogarde’s most devoted biographer, heads his charming introduction with something Bogarde wrote to his editor, Norah Smallwood: ‘‘I am really not a bit ...