FOR Herefordshire author Peter Burden, ghost-writing is a way of life.

Being asked to ghost-write David Hemmings' autobiography, just months before the actor's death, was a cherry ripe for the picking.

Holed up in Hemmings' country retreat, the two shared myriad stories from the star's career.

Hemmings had been chosen, aged 12, to play a lead role in Benjamin Britten's new operatic version of The Turn of the Screw - which shot him to fame - and he is remembered for leads in such films as Blow Up, The Charge of the Light Brigade and Barbarella.

The autobiography reveals that, when it was offered, Hemmings found he simply didn't want stardom.

Given the adulation, the millions of column inches and exposure following the success of his films, the actor remained surprisingly self-effacing and generous spirited.

For a short time, at the end of the 60s, Hemmings was quite simply one of the biggest movie stars in the world.

When he was cast by Michelangelo Antonioni to play the enigmatic lead in the seminal 60s picture, Blow Up, he was 25 - having already appeared in over 30 films, been married and become a father.

Hemmings was a hit with Hollywood, too, after starring in the Warner Bros musical production Camelot, with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave.

And his romance and subsequent marriage to film actress Gayle Hunnicut filled the press for the next six years. They were the Posh 'n' Becks of their day.

By the end of the 80s he was one of the highest paid directors in American TV (Murder She Wrote/The A-Team), while his third marriage was ending.

Back in England, marriage to his fourth wife, Lucy, helped to get him back on track, personally and professionally.

A string of fine character parts included Cassius in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, Last Orders in which he starred with Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtney and Michael Caine, and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York with Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz.

Between jobs he had taken up painting, and held two one-man shows in London galleries.

Burden himself has packed a lot into his years.

Having run a jeans' company on London's Kings Road - his first book, Rags, was an immediate best-seller.

He gambolled through the next eight years, penning eight books with jockey John Francome, and three with horse trainer Jenny Pitman.

In between times, he worked on a couple of other projects - including Soldier of Fortune and the book to co-incide with the TV documentary Jungle Janes.

The shelf is pretty full.

It was while walking in Bosnia that Burden took the call from his literary agent to say that Hemmings was looking for help with his autobiography.

"Will you go down and see him?"

The two men got on immediately.

Hemmings had written chunks, including early reminiscences.

"Mainly overwritten and embellished".

The two worked on four or five chapters together before the actor went off to Romania for a film part - a cameo in Blessed.

Hemmings was there for a week before dropping dead in his trailer.

Asked to give a 15-minute address at Hemmings' memorial service, Burden was sandwiched between Derek Jacobi and Tom Courtenay.

Understandably nervous, what the author came to understand was the warmth with which Hemmings was regarded in the industry famed for its spite and shallowness.

"He had great charm and lived very fully," Burden said.

"He still smoked as much as it was possible to smoke, and was mentally as active as anything."

Unassuming, affable, warm, enthusiastic and modest were the words used to describe the actor.

He had stayed on good terms with most of his former wives and girlfriends, many of who attended both his memorial service and the launch of Blow Up, the autobiography.

l Blow-Up and Other Exaggerations is

published by Robson Book at £17.99 (hardback).