Lord of Misrule: The Autobiography of Christopher Lee (Paperback)

Christopher Carandini Lee was born in 1922, to an Italian countess (who was descended from Italian royalty) and a soon-gone British soldier. His was an unusual childhood masked by a conventional British schoolboy's life. At the age of seventeen his world (along with his stepfather's finances) suddenly began to come apart. He fought in World War II, in the Royal Air Force, only to dip back into acting.

Lee rapidly became known as one of the best villains of the movie business, playing Dracula alone a staggering ten times. Here he recounts how he acted with legendary actors like Errol Flynn (who mangled his finger) or his good pal, monster great Boris Karloff (complete with lisping jokes); his marriage; the good, bad and ugly of his varied career; and finally two of his most prominent roles: the evil wizard Saruman of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings," and Count Dooku of the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy."

Technically, "Lord of Misrule" isn't an entirely new book -- it was once published as "Tall Dark and Gruesome." But here it's updated with new information and photographs from the past few years, and new reflections from Lee. Not to mention a friendly foreword by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson, which serves as a good warm-up.

Lee himself has a very formal, erudite way of writing, sprinkled with literary references to P.G. Wodehouse and G.K. Chesterton. (And Tolkien, of course) But don't think this book is stuffy. If anything, the eighty-plus years of Lee's life zip by too fast. He clearly has a wealth of stories to tell, and the book is barely big enough to contain them.

Lee also strikes a good balance between humor and darkness. In one taut anecdote, he describes how his daughter was born with deformed feet. In another, he wryly describes how he used to scurry across the Italian border dressed as a girl. It's also augmented by plenty of photos. Some are professional photos, but many are personal photos -- Lee with his wife and daughter, or his friends, at his investiture, or as a bright-eyed baby.

Very few actors have lived a life even half as interesting as the roles they have played, but Christopher Lee is one of the few. And "Lord of Misrule" is a fascinating, captivating read about a unique person.

The book starts (obviously!) with Lee's view on his childhood, he was born into a family of Italian nobility on his mothers side and tried out for Eton as a youngster. He fell into acting when it was recommended to him by a cousin and he said 'why not!'

Throughout much of his early career Lee was typecast as a horror actor, especially after taking over the reins of Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Lee used to live next door to Boris Karloff another actor famed for his horror roles and he is just one of Lee's famous friends mentioned throughout the book.

I personally found the last few chapters most interesting as Lee spoke about his more recent work in Star Wars and Lord of the rings. The intoduction of the book was written by Peter Jackson the director of the Lord of the Rings just as filming ended on the last part of the trilogy.

I throughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all of not only Lee's fans but fans of the movies in general. It may also help o have an interest in Golf (i dont!) as his favourite pastime it does crop up a lot!

I am looking forward to seeing Christopher Lee on our screens for a long time yet.