Driving You Mad, Driving You Crazy

20 Mar 2019

INTERVIEW: Wayne Griffin on his book “Dame Elizabeth Taylor – Shades of Violet” #ListenNow

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INTERVIEW: Wayne Griffin on his book “Dame Elizabeth Taylor – Shades of Violet” #ListenNow

LOVE movies and Elizabeth Taylor? Well then, do we have the podcast and book for you. David & Sue talk to Wayne Griffin about his book “Dame Elizabeth Taylor – Shades of Violet” in which he navigates through the world of Elizabeth Taylor and celebrates her life and his connection with celebrity. In “Dame Elizabeth Taylor – Shades of Violet“, shoes, vintage fashion, personal objects and letters from the celebrity activist and icon are displayed with loving precision and help to embellish the life story of the Queen of Hollywood. Dame Elizabeth herself declared the collection as, “a very thoughtful and extensive volume, one that bought back so many memories, and made her day so very special”. #ListenNow

Make sure you listen to Sue’s reaction when she puts on a replica of Elizabeth Taylor’s diamond ring!! You can buy the book at various online retailers now or soon in bookstores.

And here is a short intro to Wayne’s book from the web…

“When I was sixteen I developed a unique attraction to Dame Elizabeth Taylor. My friend’s father introduced me to Taylor when he gave me a copy of the film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” in the mid-1980’s. From that moment on I was transfixed by the romantic renaissance which could only be known to me as Dame Elizabeth Taylor.

I would spend hours scanning magazines at my local news agency and began collecting articles and making up scrapbooks that became overflowing with titillating tabloid gossip. There was no internet back then, so anything printed about Dame Elizabeth Taylor was all I knew.

Eventually, I read an article that somehow disclosed Elizabeth’s personal address. I spent the next four years writing to that address signing off on every occasion, “forever Elizabeth your biggest fan”.

I wrote to Elizabeth Taylor on her first visit to the Betty Ford Centre and pinned what was then my favourite picture of her in a get well card. It was the first autograph in this collection. There were many more that followed. In 1992, I was personally declared by Dame Elizabeth as her number one fan. This became the inception of our 20-year penfriendship which lasted until her passing in 2011.

Since 1992, I have amassed a most extraordinary celebrity collection, one that is quite uniquely a “one of a kind”. It has been reported as a collection never to be duplicated. On many occasions, I shared this collection with Dane Elizabeth and on many occasions, Dame Elizabeth has shared part of her personal life with the collection.

Since learning my great grandmother’s middle names were Elizabeth Rosemond, that Richard Burton had purchased the famous Taylor/Burton Diamond on my birthday and that I too had dated a Richard twice, to me, Dame Elizabeth Taylor was written into my life long before I was conceived.”