Sean Connery: The measure of a man

Sean Connery''s personification of secret agent James Bond invigorated Britain and its cinema, allowing a cash-strapped, morale-sapped country in decline to fancy itself still a player on the world stage. But while Bond would make Connery the first actor to command a million dollar-plus fee, the man himself was forever pouring scorn on the fantasies audiences found it increasingly hard to separate him from.

Spirited, argumentative and sardonically celebratory, Christopher Bray''s Sean Connery is both a biography of a star and an investigation of what can happen to a man when the images he creates take over his life. And it''s an analysis of what it means to be star-struck - a critical tribute to a secular icon who has shaped so many dreams.

In this skillfully crafted biography, Christopher Bray challenges the assumptions and rumours prevelent in previous biographies with characteristic wit and skill. His previous book Michael Caine: A Class Act, was described by the Telegraph as ''an extremely enjoyable interpretation of a fascinating body of work.''

Apart from his notable performances as James Bond in seven Bond films including Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, Sean Connery won an Oscar for The Untouchables and appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Highlander and The Rock. He has also starred in The Man Who Would Be King, Murder on the Orient Express and Zardoz.