That Judy Garland was a troubled soul whose life ended prematurely at age 47 due to a drugs overdose is old news, so what is Gerald Clarke hoping to achieve by retelling the tawdry tale some 32 years after her death? It would seem that he wants the reader to understand how and why a life can go so badly wrong and he contends that, in this case, the how and the why are due to the fact that Frances Ethel Gumm was shaped and moulded by a ruthless, unloving mother and sold into the dollar-driven showbusiness industry. This account of Garland's life focuses on the doomed relationships in her life and, in doing so, gives a jaw-dropping account of Hollywood and its celebrities' lives and loves during that golden era. It is an unbiased, no-nonsense narrative that tears the paper off the cracks and lays bare the flaws but then goes further, explaining how the flaws came to be there in the first place. A clear, documentary style and the simple approach of a start, middle and end makes this book quite a new wheel rather than the re-invention of an old one.