Book review: Truly Madly: Vivien Leigh, Lawrence Olivier and the Romance of the Century by Stephen Galloway

By Philippa Tracy

These days fewer unmarried people choose to tie the knot. Perhaps this is why divorce rates have been falling over the last 20 years. In 1937, when Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh decided to leave their respective partners and child, fewer than 5,000 couples divorced. This made their affair intriguing and also highly problematic, as the glare of publicity damaged those who wanted to remain respectable, or those with Hollywood aspirations and an eye to potential morality clauses in studio contracts.

But this is not a book about marriage. It is a book about something else entirely: passion. Galloway says his book is, “a study of passion – not the soft, sentimental kind of Hollywood movies and Victorian romance but the sort that engulfs, overwhelms and sometimes destroys: the sort for which the Oliviers became famous.” Olivier, often known as Larry, was married three times and Leigh twice. Both had countless other liaisons. The book is focused on their relationship that lasted nearly three decades and appeared at times to be both intensely passionate and mutually destructive.

Galloway walks the reader through the parallel careers of Olivier and Leigh and their various attempts at working together, not always successfully. Their broadway performance of Romeo and Juliet was a flop and the film version cost them much of their own savings. Vivien’s career was also hampered at various stages by bouts of physical illness, mental illness and a number of miscarriages. Galloway carefully details the tempestuous nature of the relationship, linking it to Vivien’s mental illness, then referred to as manic depression. At the time people did not fully understand her behaviour and she earnt a reputation for being difficult to work with.

In her periods of mania, Vivien, who would likely today be recognised as suffering from bipolar disorder, would get drunk, swear, strip naked, demand sex and run through the gardens of their country estate. At one point she threatened to jump out of a plane. Vivien also seemed tragically wedded to the idea of having a child with Larry, even as the relationship was falling apart. The famous London critic, Kenneth Tynan, believed Vivien held Olivier back when they acted together because of her lesser talent.

Despite the fact that she was the star of Gone with the Wind, Vivien also had to deal with attitudes towards women in Hollywood and the increasing problem that “women of that era were supporting players, footnotes in male-written and male-centric scripts – and when a lead came along, all too often they were deemed fungible, quick to be replaced by younger actresses with shorter resumes and fewer demands.” This seemed to be reflected in her relationship with Larry too.

The book is sympathetic to Vivien and you can’t help but feel sad when you know that after all that she said, ‘I’d rather live a short life with Larry than face a long one without him’. This book is a fascinating read from the former executive editor of The Hollywood Reporter. He spent time in archives in London, Los Angeles, Texas and India where Vivien was born. It includes perspectives from friends and contemporaries of the Oliviers, as well as commentary from current mental health experts.