For more than thirty years, Barry Norman established himself as the authority on cinema and has become the funniest, most iconoclastic and astute film reviewer we have. He fronted the seminal BBC film programme from 1972 until three years ago when he decided to move to Sky, maintaining his justly-deserved reputation as the nation's infallible guide to the best and worst that cinema had to offer.
During his time on television and working as show business editor at the 'Daily Mail', Barry met and fraternised with the cinematic greats - stars, directors and producers - and he now tells all in an honest, clever and humorous insider's look at the worlds of journalism, broadcasting and film.
Barry Norman also explores the myths about the stars, the allegedly glamorous life of the movies and even gets to the bottom of his supposed catch-phrase.
From early childhood spent in a film family, 'And Why Not?' covers Hitler dropping bombs in Barry's back garden, his life of crime as a seven-year-old, his father's distinguished career as a film editor, producer and then director for the world-famous Ealing Studios among others and his mother's larcenous family. It also describes his years as a journalist in southern Africa and Fleet Street and then the strange twist of fate which led him into an unsought career on television.
On the way, it takes in encounters with such well-known riffraff as Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Liz Taylor and Anthony Hopkins, all of whom he liked a lot, Peter Sellers and Bruce Willis, whom he didn't like at all, John Wayne, who tried to hit Barry and Robert De Niro, who didn't actually hit him but may well have thought seriously about doing so.
With five decades of the most fabulous anecdotes to be told from the flipside of the silver screen, Barry Norman has written a witty and intelligent story of a fascinating life. And why not?
