MOVIES FROM THE MANSION: A HISTORY OF PINEWOOD STUDIOS

MOVIES FROM THE MANSION: A HISTORY OF PINEWOOD STUDIOS

Movies from the Mansion is the story of Pinewood Studios, for 50 years one of the world's great centres of film-making - the home of James Bond and Superman, Genevieve and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, The Red Shoes and The Great Gatsby . Pinewood Studios were built around a mansion in a leafy part of Buckinghamshire in 1936: it was as if, as someone said at the opening, a millionaire had decided to make pictures in his garden. Pinewood, in common with the entire British film industry, has had a bumpy history, but has survived and flourished, with stars such as Jack Hawkins, Dirk Bogarde, Kenneth More, Christopher Reeve, Sean Connery, Jessie Matthews, Roger Moore, Glenda Jackson and Deborah Kerr making their most notable films there.

George Perry, Sunday Times journalist and author of Forever Ealing, The Great British Picture Show, Life of Python, Rupert: A Bear's Life and Bluebell, all of which are also published by Pavilion, tells the story of Britain's major studio.