The Finest Years
by Charles Drazin
It came out in 1998 and is one of the most enjoyable books about British cinema. It combines masses of interesting information with total readability. I think it’s valuable both to scholars and laymen who just want to know more about how British cinema’s finest years came about. He’s tracked down a remarkable number of the prime movers and shakers of those years – there’s a chapter for instance on David Lean and Carol Reed, where he manages to have fresh things to say, for example, about Lean’s Brief Encounter or Reed’s great 40s trilogy, The Fallen Idol, Odd Man Out and The Third Man.
