Robert Sellers's authorised biography of the actor Oliver Reed is both a frustrating and gripping read. Eschewing wider cultural analysis, Sellers writes about the life and career of one of Britain's most notorious actors in a laddish style that takes prurient glee in discussing Reed's many episodes of drunkenness with the lowbrow humour that seems more suited to the pub than the bookshelves. If you enjoy stories about inebriated people urinating on one another's heads, this will be the best book you read all year.

On the other hand, if you can stomach much of the detail, Sellers has managed to piece together a fascinating tale of how Reed, once regarded as Britain's most promising young actor, managed to throw his undeniable talent away. In a career which began with bit parts in Hammer horrors, escalated into leads in the likes of Women in Love and The Devils and eventually petered out into playing roles in forgotten B-movies with titles like Captive Rage, Reed's commendably unstarry outlook and contempt for fame sat uneasily with what gradually became an all-consuming drink problem.

Exploited by chat show producers and interviewers as a licensed fool, it was ironic that probably his best performance, as the wily slave trader Proximo in Gladiator, proved to be his last. Appropriately, Reed died while filming in Malta, having engaged a group of sailors in an arm-wrestling match earlier that day. Like Reed himself, the book might not be subtle but in places it's hilariously funny and, by the end, it's oddly moving as well.