Paul Newman’s memoir shows that it’s easier spilling the beans from beyond the grave

Dishing the dirt on your contemporaries (and yourself) is a lot safer when you know you won’t be around to face the consequences, writes Charlotte Cripps

In the memoir, Newman talks candidly about his traumatic upbringing, his lack of success with women, his films... and his love story with Joanne Woodward (AP)

We’ve just had Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Dairies published nearly seven years after his death in 2016. Now Paul Newman’s posthumous memoir, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, is being published next week on 27 October, 14 years after his death in 2008.

In the memoir, Newman talks candidly about his traumatic upbringing, his lack of success with women, his films and his love story with Joanne Woodward. The book contains reflections from his family and friends, as well as stars and directors, including Tom Cruise and Elia Kazan.

Celebrity memoirs make the best news stories as they are always meaty and come straight from the horse’s mouth. We skim-read them to find the best lines and the most telling revelations.