THIS is the real and, until now, untold story of Rudolph Valentino -- and the story Valentino himself said was too "wild and improbable" for his public to believe...

The legendary Latin lover who was the silver screen's first and greatest male sex symbol was also the first to be attacked in public by his own adoring, hysterical fans, fighting to touch their idol or snatch a tiny piece of his clothing or hair as a keepsake. When he died at just 31, he left behind a legion of broken-hearted women and as many unanswered questions.

Best-selling author Noel Botham has spent more than 25 years, and travelled over 30,000 miles, searching for, and unravelling, the missing answers which explain Valentino's brief but incredible life, and has spoken to many of the people who shared times with the cinema's first superstar.

He has conducted frank and revealing face-to-face interviews with the movie stars of Valentino's time -- Carmel Myers, Viola Dana, Gloria Swanson, Pola Negri, Gertrude Astor and others, enabling him to paint this rounded and unique portrait of the screen's most exciting and enduring legend. By cutting through the rumours and following up previously ignored leads he has uncovered the shameful secrets of Rudolph Valentino's early years in America, which the smouldering-eyed screen idol tried to keep hidden from his fans, and learned the full and shocking truth about his two disastrous marriages. This first-ever intimate and searingly accurate biography explores Valentino's childhood to his tragic early death. (Published by Metro at £16.99).