Bogarde claimed he had known General Browning from his time on Field Marshal Montgomery's staff during the war and took issue with the largely negative portrayal of the General that he played in the 1977 film "A Bridge Too Far". General "Boy" Browning's widow, the author Daphne du Maurier, ferociously attacked his characterisation and "the resultant establishment fallout, much of it homophobic, wrongly convinced [Bogarde] that the newly ennobled Sir Richard [Attenborough] had deliberately contrived to scupper his own chance of a knighthood." In 1977, Bogarde embarked on his second career as an author. Starting with a first volume "A Postillion Struck by Lightning" (an allusion to the phrase "My postillion has been struck by lightning"), he wrote a series of 15 best-selling books; nine volumes of memoirs, six novels, as well as essays, reviews, poetry and collected journalism. As a writer Bogarde displayed a witty, elegant, highly literate and thoughtful style. While under contract with the Rank Organisation, Bogarde was set to play the role of T. E. Lawrence in a proposed film "Lawrence" to be directed by Anthony Asquith. On the eve of production, after one year of preparation by Bogarde and Asquith, the film was scrapped without full explanation, to the dismay of Bogarde and Asquith. The abrupt scrapping of "Lawrence", a role long researched and keenly anticipated by Bogarde, was among his greatest screen disappointments. Bogarde was also reportedly considered for the title role in MGM's "Doctor Zhivago" (1965). Earlier, he declined Louis Jourdan's role as Gaston in MGM's "Gigi" (1958). In 1961, Bogarde was offered the chance to play Hamlet at the recently founded Chichester Festival Theatre by artistic director Sir Laurence Olivier, but had to decline due to film commitments. Bogarde later said that he regretted declining Olivier's offer and with it the chance to "really learn my craft." For many years Bogarde shared his homes, first in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, and then in France, with Anthony Forwood. Forwood, who had been married to actress Glynis Johns during the 1940s, was the father of the actor Gareth Forwood, their only child. Bogarde repeatedly denied that his relationship to Forwood was anything other than platonic. This was perhaps a lie because male homosexual acts were criminal during most of his career, and could lead to prosecution and imprisonment.