In the July 2026 issue of UK nostalgia magazine Best of British, Claire Saul turns the clock back to our first ‘Summer of Marilyn.’
“Seventy years ago, on 14 July 1956. Hollywood glamour queen Marilyn Monroe, accompanied by her new husband. Arthur Miller, and 27 pieces of luggage. arrived at London Airport. The VIP arrivals were greeted by one of Britain’s own superstar couples, actors Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
This would be Marilyn’s first and only visit to these shores, her four-month stay for the purpose of shooting the film The Prince and the Showgirl with Olivier at Pinewood Studios. It was also a timely for her playwright husband, who took the opportunity to promote the forthcoming West End launch of his A View from the Bridge.
While over here, the couple stayed at Parkside House in Englefield Green, Surrey. The weeks that followed were depicted in the memoirs of Olivier’s runner Colin Clark and later dramatised in the 2011 film My Week With Marilyn. But many more anecdotes surround that period while Marilyn worked through her filming schedule, attended press conferences, enjoyed the theatre and spent time with her husband.
A 36-year-old Marilyn was found dead at her Hollywood home just six years later. But thankfully, in the form of reminiscences and anecdotes, portraits by photographers such as Cecil Beaton, works by great artists and of course her body of work on film, Marilyn still reaches out to us today.”
The article also includes an overview of Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
“Marilyn was one of the most photographed people in the world, and was a source of fascination and inspiration for some of the greatest artists. This exhibition presents works by artists such as Andy Warhol who created his famous screen prints of the actress based on a publicity still taken to promote her 1953 film Niagara, and British pop artist Pauline Boty, a devoted fan, who worked through her grief at Marilyn’s death in paintings including Colour Her Gone and The Only Blonde in the World (1962). Boty was herself frequently discussed in terms relating to her appearance and also considered that Marilyn ‘understood what it meant to be alive and sensuous and intelligent all at once and also very beautiful.'”
And finally, if you’d like to know more about Marilyn’s time in England, Michelle Morgan’s When Marilyn Met the Queen is the definitive account.
