Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations cover art

Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

By: Peter Evans, Ava Gardner
Narrated by: William Hope
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Frank & Ava cover art
Ava Gardner cover art
Marilyn Monroe: On the Couch cover art
I Loved Her in the Movies cover art
Bette & Joan cover art
Jackie cover art
Past Imperfect cover art
The Awesome Girl's Guide to Dating Extraordinary Men cover art
The Plot cover art
Furious Love cover art
The Lonely Life cover art
My Husband, My Friend cover art
They're Playing Our Song cover art
Natalie Wood cover art
Bluegrass State of Mind cover art
Elizabeth cover art

Summary

This wickedly candid memoir that Ava Gardner dared not publish during her lifetime offers a revealing self-portrait of the film legend's life and loves in Hollywood's golden age.

Ava Gardner was one of Hollywood's great stars during the 1940s and '50s, an Oscar-nominated leading lady who co-starred with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart, among others.

But this riveting account of her storied life and career had to wait for publication until after her death, so concerned was Gardner with its frankness. 'I either write the book or sell the jewels,' Gardner told co-author Peter Evans, 'and I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels.'

The legendary actress serves up plenty of gems in these pages, reflecting with delicious humour and cutting wit on a life that took her from an impoverished childhood in North Carolina to the heights of stardom.

Get ready for the most revealing Hollywood autobiography in decades.

©2013 Peter Evans and Ava Gardner (P)2014 Audible, Inc

What listeners say about Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    42
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    47
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    41
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Totally absorbing, fascinating and all consuming!

Buy this book! It is written and performed in such a unique way that creates a feeling of being there with Ava and Peter, her writer and soaking up all of her riveting and incredibly revealing recollections. I felt a sense of loss when the book abruptly seemed to come to an end, but the circumstances dictated the ending and any other finish would have affected its honesty. Fascinating from start to finish with no dips in delivery or content!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

cigarettes and alcohol!


A complex and really interesting woman, this is an eye opening audiobook, beautifully read by William Hope, this is as much a description of the relationship between her and the ghost writer as about Ava Gardner which is what makes it so different. Highly recommended!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

If you love the golden age of the movies it's for

Any additional comments?

If you love the inside stories of the great Hollywood stars as close as possibly from their own mouths, this is for you. The writer spent hours talking to Ava and making copious notes and this is basically the transcript of his notes. Unfortunately the narrator tries to do an Ava voice, which isn't a bit like Ava's ( or any womans) voice, this gets annoying. I put up with this and enjoyed the insider view of the golden age of Hollywood, but if you're not that into that era it's not going to interest you at all.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Unadulterated rubbish

What would have made Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations better?

The narrator not trying to mimic her voice

Would you ever listen to anything by Peter Evans and Ava Gardner again?

I have read other works by Peter Evans - this one doesn't leave up to his previous books

What didn’t you like about William Hope’s performance?

Overall it really wasn't William Hope's performance but the content of the book that was so disappointing and lacking in all that makes for a good biography

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

Don't waste your money on this nonsense.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

So disappointing

I really expected more from this book.
It was disappointingly shallow and the narrator didn't do it any favours either with his awful rendition of an american accent - I abandoned listening to it about half way through.
One to miss I think!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

This man is writing about himself

Piggybacking on Eva’s life. Discussing. All about him. How he feel and what he thought and really bad voice reader as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Is it 100% honest?

I have to start by saying I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. As I head into my mid 50's I have adopted an interest in old Hollywood stars and their stories. Ava Gardner is certainly someone that interests me mainly because of her reputation of being the classic 40's and 50's stereotypical star. She had it all at her peak. Gorgeous looks, sassy and confident in her personality and someone that oozed confidence in her abilities in attracting the opposite sex. But I think she was much more than that, and this book opens a small door into her life and loves and how life was back in those glamorous early days.

I'm not 100% sure if Peter Evans book is all fact and no fiction or if he put words into her mouth when writing this semi biography. It may be a lot of her sassy chat, swearing and 'Baby's and Honey's' were over dramatized to make her come across as I in particular would like her to sound or be. But frankly I don't care if it's all fact or some fiction. Apart from the somewhat irritating at times impersonation of Ava it is a very good listen. It starts off a litle slow but as the book goes on she comes out of her shell and you learn a great deal about those wild Hollywood days at MGM and her love of alcohol, cigarettes and men and lots of partying.

It is sad that Peter Evans never got to finish the final chapter due to a heart attack and death. I found that whoever finished the book off did so a little too abruptly. It would have been a better tribute to Peter Evans had it been a little more detailed. But it didn't spoil it for me.
It is also sad that Ava pulled the plug after the many days and late evenings spent chatting with Peter Evans and of course drinking and having fun with him! Frank Sinatra made her pull the plug on what would have been a very good autobiography indeed.

A good read that I didn't want to end!
..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Candid Conversations

Thoroughly enjoyed these conversations learnt quite a few things I did not know about Ava, have a trip planned in January to go to her museum in Smithfield - can’t wait!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Repetitive, predictable and dull.

Zero excitement or shock. One dreary account after another. We met, we drank, we slept together. No details.

The worst, glaring error, is the authors self obsessed, constant repetitions of discussions with he and Ava as to whether he would write the book or not, or wether he would include a certain element or not.

Every time the book gets going, he stops to drearily account how she said, ' don't include this and he said, 'yes, let's include it'. This takes up about a quarter of the book and comes over as him being totally self obsessed. He could easily have left these to and fros out and this would have made for a marginally better book.

Other books including Avas story, including Howard Hughes books, are infinitely better and contain far more detail concerning Avas life. This is all about him and what a repetitive dullard he is. Don't waste your money.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very,very enjoyable,and the narration is top hole,

I cannot remember when I have enjoyed a book more,they certainly do not make them like that anymore....loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!