20 October 2014

Review #23: The Affair by Gill Paul



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald's remarkable words:

“A love affair is like a short story--it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning was easy, the middle might drag, invaded by commonplace, but the end, instead of being decisive and well knit with that element of revelatory surprise as a well-written story should be, it usually dissipated in a succession of messy and humiliating anticlimaxes.”

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's affair was one of the world’s most notorious and most talked about affair in its history. We fell with them, we cried with them, we resented with them, we hated with them, we envied with them, we burned with jealousy with them, we felt everything whatever La Taylor and Richard was feeling, because their affair was strikingly caught behind every paparazzi’s lenses to present to the world and theirs was the affair which shake each and everyone in this planet.

Gill Paul, an English historical fiction writer, has penned her new novel, The Affair based on real-life incidents and events during the year 1963 on the very sets of Cleopatra movie, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, in Rome. It's not only a love story, but also involves around a dark-mystery and the underworld of Italian drug-mafias.


Synopsis:
Diana is a home-maker, when one fine day, she bags an offer from the 21st Century Fox cinemas to act as a "Historical Advisor" on the film sets of the movie Cleopatra in Rome, since she had done a P.H.D on life’s and tales about the most notorious queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Diana's husband, Trevor, who is an academician, disregards Diana's lucrative offer, but Diana takes up the offer with a heavy heart by listening to herself. Upon her arrival, Diana realizes that the already high budget movie is falling behind finances and is drying up eventually to fulfil Elizabeth's all demands and wishes. But Diana's life changes around when she falls into the arms of an Italian man named Ernesto, who too used to work on the sets of Cleopatra and soon confiding in her new-found best friend, Helen, who used to be the make-up artist. But Helen harvested a dark secret and a deadly habit in the dark alleys and dingy bars of Rome, which eventually led her to an in-fateful road. Scott, a young journalist is on the fire to give a lesson and expose one of the most famous mafia kings to the world and is also making each and every ends to get a clear shot of La Taylor to satisfy his boss. When Richard Burton arrives on the sets, a passionate relationship grows behind the trailer doors and studio offices in Rome and the whole world is chasing them to get a shot of their affair.

Doesn't the blurb sounds awesome, reality mixed with fiction and author has successfully delivered her story to her readers. Flawlessly written and with such an extraordinary plot, the book is indeed an engrossing read. From the very first page, I got hooked into the tale and the pace is way too fast, and with the author's striking flow of narration, the book becomes more interesting. The author has blended the storyline of Taylor-Burton affair along with her own story about Diana, Scott, Trevor and Helen and about Italian mafia. While reading, I could feel the thrill running down my bones, and I could feel the author's passion in her words. The story takes you on a roller-coaster ride filled with emotions, mystery and too many affairs around the sets of Cleopatra movie in Rome. Not only the author has spun a mind-blowing tale but also the author has captured the flawless actress, Elizabeth Taylor so remarkably with her words.
P.S. Did you know that Cleopatra movie almost made 21st Century Fox cinemas bankrupt and the president of 21st Century Fox cinemas had to resign from his position? We can rightly say that Elizabeth Taylor was indeed an incredible actress! 
 
Verdict: Don't miss out this must-read book which not only awes you with the most famous affair of the world but also captivates you with the unraveling mystery about drugs and mafia lords.



Courtesy: Millions times thanks to the author, Gill Paul, for sending me over a copy of her book, in return for an honest and unbiased review.
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Author Info:
Gill Paul is an author of historical fiction, whose novels include Women and Children First (set on the Titanic and published in 2012 for the centenary of the sinking) and The Affair (set in Rome in the early 1960s, and coming out in May 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the release of the Burton-Taylor Cleopatra movie).
Gill has written several non-fiction books, including Titanic Love Stories (2011), about the honeymoon couples aboard the doomed ship, and Civil War Love Stories (2013), based on letters couples wrote to each other during the American Civil War. She also writes on health, healthy eating, and a variety of other subjects ranging from cowboys of the American South and extreme weather events to ghost-hunting and relationships.
Gill runs her own company based in London that produces books for publishers. She has edited Griff Rhys Jones, John Suchet, John Julius Norwich, Ray Mears and Eartha Kitt, among others, and ghostwritten for many more. She has written film treatments, newspaper features about relationships and history, and TV tie-ins. 
Future projects include a novel set in 1920s Paris (a particular favourite era) and a book of World War 2 Love Stories (coming out in 2014). Do get in touch if you know any good stories about couples who met during the war and who would permit her to include them.
Visit her here

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2 comments:

  1. Sounds delightful--just bought it as an eBook for $1.99. Good deal!

    ReplyDelete

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