'I will play Scarlett O'Hara' she said, even while the novel of Gone with the Wind was being reviewed - and she did. While a barrister's wife with an infant daughter she saw a handsome actor and immediately announced 'I will marry him' - and she did. From 1940 until they divorced in 1960 Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were the 'royal' couple of the stage in two continents, yet were steadily being consumed by Vivien's manic depression which led her into follies and affairs. Drawing on the memories and anecdotes of her family, friends and fellow players, as well as on his own conversations with Vivien just before her death, Alexander Walker has written the definitive biography of Vivien Leigh.