For me it begins in such an ordinary way ... with a gorilla, a blonde,

and a gun ...

Mid- 20th century Hollywood; 'Raymond

Chandler's LA before Pilates and cell phones'. Clancy Sigal (who would later be

the inspiration for Doris Lessing's 'Saul Green') is just back from

fighting in the Second World War and an abortive solo attempt to assassinate Hermann

Goering at the Nurenburg trials. 

Charming his way into a job as an

agent with the Sam Jaffe agency, Sigal plunges into a chaotic Hollywood peopled by fast

women, washed-up screenwriters, wily directors, and starstruck FBI agents

trailing 'subversives'. He parties with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Tony

Curtis and an anxious Peter Lorre, who becomes a drinking buddy.

But this is the era of the Hollywood Blacklist

and Sigal, like many of his contemporaries, is subpoenaed to testify before the

HUAC. Will he give up the list of nine names, burning a hole in his pocket, to

save his own skin? 

Hilarious, touching, intimate and revealing: Sigal's

memoir reads like a forgotten hardboiled detective novel and has all the makings of an

instant classic.