Welcome to Litsy!

In Snakes and Ladders, the second instalment of Dirk Bogarde's carefully observed autobiography, we are taken from the challenges of his army training camp, through the horrors of war, to his glittering – if often trying – film career. We see the thoughtful boy finding his way alongside his fellow recruits, to emerge from the war a thoughtful man, shaped in many ways by his harrowing experiences. Somewhat falling into his career, Dirk struggles with the demands that such great success brings with it. With personal insight into his close friendship with Judy Garland, his working method with Visconti, and his many vital relationships with friends and family, Dirk sheds an honest and not always flattering light on his life. First published in 1978, Snakes and Ladders is a fascinating and illuminating book that delves deep within Bogarde's own character, the people that mattered to him, and the exotic and star strewn world that he moved in.