Robert Shaw was a magnet for fascinating people. Women find him sexy. Men call him a man's man. The fact that he was a brilliant actor and a brilliant writer is almost beside the point. 

How he developed such a fascinating personality is at the heart of this biography. 

Robert's mother was a tough Cornishwoman who raised five children by herself after her husband committed suicide.  His sister was an anti-Apartheid activist, working mother of seven, and champion for women’s rights. Their intertwined lives unfold across vivid settings: the Orkney Islands, wartime Cornwall, Apartheid-era South Africa, Broadway and London’s West End, and finally Martha’s Vineyard, where Robert worked on Jaws and cowrote the iconic USS Indianapolis monologue.

This is not your traditional biography. I grew up listening to the laugh-out-loud stories of my uncle (Robert Shaw), my mother (Robert's sister), and their mother (my grandmother). This is their story... the way they told it to me.