Madeleine Carroll, I began to realise, was not your average Golden Age starlet. She was educated for a start. And she was idealistic, philanthropic, not in the least like the roles she inhabited on screen.

   She married four times: four very different men, but in each instance, a larger-than-life character. I'm not at all sure what that says about her.

   All four marriages failed in short order. I'm not sure if that says anything about her either.

   But anyway, her first was Colonel Philip Astley, an adventurer hailing from Herefordshire's landed gentry. Number two: Hemingway-esque Hollywood firebrand, Sterling Hayden. Then the French film director, Henri Lavorel.

   Lastly (and, to my mind, the most astonishing of the lot) Andrew Heiskell, publisher of Life magazine, and eventually Chairman and CEO of Time Inc.

   They had a daughter.

   They divorced.

   The daughter died.