Who’s afraid of the toxic diaries?

Suzanne Harrington reads Richard Burton’s just published diaries — and reveals what they expose about one of Hollywood’s most notorious marriages.

SOME private diaries might best be kept private, and the actor Richard Burton’s is one of them. Like the man himself — an alcoholic who smoked 100 cigarettes a day — they are decidedly toxic.

Published this month by his fourth wife almost 30 years after his death in 1984 from a brain haemorrhage aged 57, the diaries are acidic — which is why they are receiving so much attention. The writings, or bitchfest, began when Burton was 14, and continued until his death. But gossip aside, perhaps their merit lies in the writing — Burton may have famously come from an unpatrician Welsh background, but both his intellect and talent for self expression — via the written and spoken word — were enormous. He was not always kind, however.