<iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-K3L4M3" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden">

Books

Homage to awesome Welles on his centenary

Both Patrick McGilligan and Simon Callow sympathetically capture the larger-than-life maverick who detested appearing in any film that wasn’t his own

12 December 2015

9:00 AM

12 December 2015

9:00 AM

Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane Patrick McGilligan

Harper, pp.832, £20, ISBN: 9780062112484

Orson Welles: One Man Band Simon Callow

Cape, pp.496, £25, ISBN: 9780224079358

One day in May 1948 in the Frascati hills southeast of Rome, Orson Welles took his new secretary, Rita Ribolla, to lunch. After eating enough food for ‘a dozen hungry people’ and sinking ‘one glass of wine after another’, all the while enchanting his guest with gossip and conjuring tricks, Welles downed his coffee and said it was time to go.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Subscribe for just $2 a week

Try a month of The Spectator Australia absolutely free and without commitment. Not only that but – if you choose to continue – you’ll pay just $2 a week for your first year.

  • Unlimited access to spectator.com.au and app
  • The weekly edition on the Spectator Australia app
  • Spectator podcasts and newsletters
  • Full access to spectator.co.uk
Or

Unlock this article

REGISTER

'Young Orson', £17 and 'Orson Welles', £21.25 are available from the Spectator Bookshop, Tel: 08430 600033

You might disagree with half of it, but you’ll enjoy reading all of it. Try your first month for free, then just $2 a week for the remainder of your first year.


Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator Australia readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Close