The new biography of Audrey Hepburn, by Barry Paris, a writer already praised for his books on Louise Brooks and Garbo, is an acute, tender-hearted and entertaining dish of Hepburn facts – he interviewed friends and family, and has a sharp eye for her film-work’s idiosyncrasies more important, he offers a grid for dream inquiries into star consciousness. Rather, we may use star chronicles as springboards for philosophical investigations, however careless and impromptu, into our own sightlines. Such moments dominate a certain 20th century, and so it is a mistake to consider a star biography as merely the linear tale of a performing life’s progress. Few writers have tried to describe ineffable instances of stars perceiving other stars and stars perceiving their own stardom. Huge gulfs divide a star in daily life from a star on screen the style in which a star executes an action (film role, household chore, errand, ambassadorial mission) is not the style in which she secretly contemplates her colleagues. Though I am interested in their behaviour, I am more interested in the curves and austerities of their cognition. If you don't already love her, Paris's book will at the least evoke admiration of her, if not enlist you in a movement for her beatification.I read star biographies to find out how stars see themselves and how they see each other. Some of the most fascinating material in this delightfully readable volume concerns the impact the ever-elegant Audrey Hepburn had on women's style and self-conception. This wartime experience both fed Hepburn's love of the spotlight and inspired a concern for the poor and powerless that compelled her to campaign for UNICEF from 1988 until her death in 1993.

The impression that Hepburn was a snob, he persuades us, was the result of an introverted character formed by her experiences during the war.

Paris, a veteran of Hollywood biography books, wants to free his readers of any false impressions that might sully the late star's reputation. Barry Paris loves Audrey Hepburn, and who can blame him? His exuberant profile of the movie star traces Hepburn's life from her childhood in the Netherlands (where she aided the Dutch resistence) through her Hollywood career (from her Oscar-winning performance in Roman Holiday to Steven Spielberg's Always).

Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris