My Mother’s Keeper

‘There’s only one way for a female to be recognize in this man’s world … and that’s to fight every inch of the way. You can never stop fighting. I fought and I’m still fighting and I’ll be fighting until my dying day’ — BETTE DAVIS

Hollywood always liked its female stars to be feminine, agreeable and pretty. Bette Davis was never a typical Hollywood star. She was tough, smart, aggressive, gifted and bitterly determined. It was those qualities that made her one of the most legendary and charismatic actresses of her generation. But the stormy personality that drove her to the top knew no rest behind the scenes, and those same qualities damned her personal life right from the start.

The broken marriages, the domestic violence and unhappiness, the vicious battles with The System, the conflicts with other stars, the personal dissatisfaction and obsessiveness, the loneliness behind the accolades – all of it is here, told by the only person who knows Bette Davis well enough to tell it, her daughter, B.D. Hyman.

Written with compassion, humour, understanding and searing honesty, this is the story of the real Bette Davis – more controversial, more shocking and more moving than any character she ever played on film.