BLACK SUNSET

An ordinary day begins with a gorilla, a blonde and a gun. Mid 20th century Hollywood, and Clancy Sigal is just back from fighting in the Second World War and an abortive solo attempt to assassinate Hermann Goering at the Nuremburg Trials. Charming his way into a job as an agent with the Sam Jaffe Agency, he plunges into a chaotic Hollywood peopled by fast women, washed-up screenwriters, wily directors and starstruck FBI agents trailing 'subversives'. An ex-union organiser, Clancy soon falls under the radar of the FBI, who are desperate to haul him up before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Will he give up the list of nine names to save his skin? The lowest of the low, the talent agent Clancy represents Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Barbara Stanwyck and Tony Curtis and he becomes drinking buddies with Lorre. This is the era of the Hollywood Blacklist, and Sigal, like many of his contemporaries, is subpoenaed to testify before the HUAC. This nonagenarian's hilarious memoir is star-studded, riveting and poignant. He went on to emigrate to Great Britain where he met and began a four year affair with the writer Doris Lessing. He later co-wrote the movie Frida and died in 2017. 340pp, paperback.