A Short Walk from Harrods

The latest volume of Dirk Bogarde's autobiography.'I learned very early on in my life that nothing was for ever; so I should have been aware ofdisillusion in early middle age: but, somehow, we try to obliterate early warnings and gocantering along hopefully, idiotically ...'No matter that the tide will turn once again and destroy all that you build (and in the depth;of your soul you know that this will happen), you thrust the spade in the hard-packed rippledsand, outline the beginning of a moat. Soon the fort will arise, decorated all about, once again,with shells and weed, with towers and turrets, arches and a drawbridge, each turret cappedwith a conical limpet shell. As glorious as the first one ever was, probably even better from theexperience gained by its destruction, and every bit as impermanent ...'How odd it is that one is not prepared for the "dissolving of the fort" one has constructed withsuch care in later life. But we do not learn. We always believe that it'll be all right for us. Thatour fort will stand, the tide will never turn. But, of course, it does.'

Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death In Venice. As well as completing six novels, Bogarde wrote several volumes of autobiography.

Between 1947 and 1991, Bogarde made more than sixty films. For over two decades he lived in Italy and France, where he began to write seriously.

In 1985 he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of St Andrews and in 1990 was promoted to Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.