Child-star in "National Velvet", the youthful object of desire who was controlled by her mother and by MGM, Oscar winning actress in "Butterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", seductress and eight-times wife, champion of AIDS research, intimate of celebrities and billionaire tycoons - for more than six decades Elizabeth Taylor has played most completely, beautifully, scandalously, flamboyantly and cunningly her greatest role of all, that of herself. This biography draws on interviews and extensive research, to tell the story of the remarkable and turbulent life of a woman of near-mythic stature.