High Society: Grace Kelly and Hollywood, By Donald Spoto

"Of course he fell in love with her," said Herbert Coleman, Hitchcock's assistant director on RearWindow. "But who didn't?" The same seems to apply to Spoto, "a personal friend of Kelly's". He depicts a likeable, talented beauty, who loved acting but was indifferent to fame.

Born into a Philadelphia building empire, she was "a virtual stranger" to her father, while her mother was known as "the Prussian general". Kelly was prone to depression but worked like a Trojan. She completed six of the 11 films that constitute her oeuvre in 14 months.

Her career was extinguished when she married Rainier, who shared both her devotion to Catholicism and discomfort with celebrity. The crash that took her life at the age of 53 was caused by a stroke at the wheel.