20. Nightmare Of Ecstasy: The Life And Art Of Edward D. Wood Jr.
by Rudolph Grey

A B-movie fan without a Wood-shaped soft spot would be like a clown without make-up: bewildering, and fundamentally crap.

No post-ironic blinkers here, though - compiling backstage testimonies to Wood's crippling flaws, Grey excavates the conflicted spirit of cinema's most endearingly wretched dreamer. Lovely on-and-off-set snaps help, too.

Killer Quote: "Ed would call at night, plastered... the Saudis were in town with $5m to make a movie, and he was meeting them tomorrow. Complete hallucination."

19. Goddess: The Secret Lives Of Marilyn Monroe
by Anthony Summers

Digging up a personality so deeply buried in iconography is tough work, but ex-BBC man Summers gives it his all, and it pays off. Doggedly stone-turning yet palpably respectful, this 1985 is still the benchmark for investigative Norma Jean journalism.

Killer Quote: "She'd keep me waiting for two hours while she was in the bathroom, supposedly washing her face. Two hours! I mean, that's very strange."

18. The Guerrilla Film-Makers' Handbook
by Chris Jones & Genevieve Jolliffe

Calling this guide 'in-depth' is like calling Bill Gates 'well-to-do'. It's truly exhaustive in its multilayered, budget-slashing top tippery.

By interviewing loads of those folks with the baffling credit-sequence job titles, this DIY bible covers more bases than you ever knew existed.

Killer Quote: "No use complaining when a beer company sues because your serial killer uses the empties to slash characters' throats."

17. I'll Be In My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors & Actors
by John Badham & Craig Modderno

Saturday Night Fever and Drop Zone helmer Badham delivers a read as entertaining as it is instructive. Hefty doses of practical advice are offset with enough anecdotal evidence to please, even if you don't expect to be coaxing a corral of preening A-listers into action any time soon.

Killer Quote: "A very angry Richard Pryor is 18 inches from my face, demanding an apology. I allegedly endangered his life by asking him to drive by the camera."

16. Me Cheeta
By James Lever

One of the most brilliant movie star biographies we’ve ever read – that fact that it was written by a monkey is almost a side-note.

This dark tale is packed with the sort of salacious gossip that most humans would be sued for printing, but we’re assuming normal libel laws don’t apply to chimps.

But it’s not just revealing, it’s really funny too. Check the below quote, which sees Cheeta reflecting on the cliché about infinite monkeys producing Shakespeare for proof...

Killer Quote: “You've had a million humans, at least, writing away for much longer than a thousand years, and only one of them ever managed to produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Only one! Well, well, what's the big deal?”

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