The Richard Burton Diaries

By Richard Burton

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs

Edited by the historian Chris Williams and published in 2012, this volume collects the diaries Richard Burton kept in scattered years between 1939, when he was a fourteen-year-old schoolboy in Wales, and 1983. The fullest run, from 1965 to 1972, covers his marriage to Elizabeth Taylor, his film and stage work, his heavy drinking, his family and his constant reading in literature and poetry.

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• Fareed Zakaria: “Richard Burton’s diaries. When I was a kid, I adored Burton. I watched all his movies, tried to imitate his voice and recited poetry in his manner. I read all the gaudy tales of his tempestuous love life — the two marriages with Elizabeth Taylor. So when his diaries came out, naturally I polished them off in one sitting.”