For many people Elizabeth Taylor was National Velvet, the book it was adapted from of the same name having been almost forgotten. Just as a reminder of the film here’s a video I found on Youtube.

Elizabeth Taylor as National Velvet

The movie also had Mickey Rooney as the retired jockey who helped the young Velvet Brown to win the Grand National. When I found that I was quite surprised and on checking found there was probably only about 10 or 11 years difference in their ages. One of the things I found really surprising is that Mickey Rooney has been married eight times, only one less than Elizabeth Taylor. I’ve never heard anything about this before, people have been quite scathing about Taylor having been married so many times but I’ve never heard a word about Rooney.

I’ve never seen the movie but I’m going to rectify that as soon as possible. I really need to see how it stacks up against the book. Writing this while chatting with a friend and she’s given me this link for the TV series, something I’d never heard of before.

National Velvet – TV series

The author, Enid Bagnold, wrote quite a few other books and plays and was quite outspoken of hospital administration in World War I, making herself quite problematic as a nurse so they sacked her.

I won’t bore you with details of the book until I’ve seen the move so I can compare the two. This is really just a teaser and a few thoughts. I do find it interesting as it helps flesh out what it must have been like living in that era with very little money and with horse mad daughters. Interesting.