An extraordinary reimagining of the life of one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both adoration and humiliation, who loved, and was loved in turn, who betrayed, and was betrayed, who never sought to cause pain to others, yet left a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake . . . And whose life was ultimately defined by one bond of such tenderness and devotion that only death could sever it: his partnership with Oliver Hardy, the man he knew as Babe.With he, John Connolly recreates thegolden age of Hollywood and the world of Stan Laurel, for an intensely compassionate study of the tension between commercial demands and artistic integrity, the human frailties behind even the greatest of artists, and one of the most enduring and beloved partnerships in cinema history: Laurel &Hardy.,