Book review - "Niv" by Graham Lord

Why another biography on David Niven? Sheridan Morley published a perfectly excellent one in the 1980s, The Other Side of the Moon, so is there a need for another one in light of the fact that the Niven most people care about is described in his two volumes of memoirs? After reading this the answer is… kind of.

This book by Graham Lord doesn’t really add much to what we know of Niven from his early life and his years in Hollywood – that is all solidly covered in Morley’s book: his early years, school days, army days, traveling adventures, winding up in Hollywood (where his success owed as much to his social pleasantness as to any ability), rise to stardom, war service, marriage and loss of his first wife, decline in career then comeback with TV, an Oscar and Around the World in 80 Days. Indeed, Morley’s book is better on this than Lord’s: for one thing, Morley is stronger on Hollywood and movies than Lord (though I thought Morley was a little rough on Niven’s films) and he interviewed a large number of stars, many of whom are now dead – Lord quotes extensively from them.

Lord’s book is strong in two areas that Morley’s is not: Hjordis and the daughters. Hjordis was Niven’s second wife, and Morley’s book does say that the marriage was often unhappy and that Niven had affairs and that she wasn’t very attentive in his dying days – but she was still alive when it was written so the punches are pulled. She’s dead now and Lord can get stuck in: she was an alcoholic adultress who made Niven’s life miserable, whom almost everyone hated, even Niven’s kids. A few people say nice things about her but are very much in the minority; most seem to agree with the friend of Niven’s who calls her “evil”. This alone justifies the book.

The second area is Niven’s two adopted daughters, who – unlike his two sons - are barely mentioned in his books and are shadowy figures in Morley’s as they did not wish to co-operate (good on him for respecting their wishes). They co-operated with Lord on this one and come across as nice people who were very fond of their father and apprehensive about their mother.

I enjoyed reading Niv a lot, and Lord has a pleasing enthusiasm for his subject. He is annoyingly weak on films and has an irritating tendency to make bitchy swipes at people, but the book is useful counter-point to The Other Side of the Moon.