The authorised biography of Oliver Reed, one of Britain's best loved actors.

'I'm simply the result of the chemicals that were in my mother's ovaries and my father's balls. I'm a loose cannon. That's what I am, and I can't help it.'

Oliver Reed is remembered by many as a volatile, hard living talent who was lost too soon. A man whose off-screen antics often overshadowed those on-screen. The persona he created was so charismatic that often he felt obliged to act it out in the public arena, perpetuating the hellraiser myth.

For the first time, Oliver Reed's family has collaborated on a project about Reed himself, revealing a complex man behind the façade, a person of great passions and loyalties underscored by deep-rooted vulnerabilities and insecurities. With never-heard-before anecdotes and new interviews with Reed's family, friends and peers, What Fresh Lunacy Is This? is a revealing examination of his mould-breaking personality.

'Lively . . . always entertaining.' Sunday Times

'Wildly funny and strangely moving.' Guardian

'Hilariously funny.' Observer

'A nice, racy romp.' Financial Times

What Fresh Lunacy Is This? is a nice, racy romp with Reed the rum-sodden rogue