Vivien Leigh friendship developed after he congratulated her on her performance. Olivier and Leigh began an affair while acting as lovers in "Fire Over England" (1937), but Olivier was still married to actress Jill Esmond. During this period, Leigh read the Margaret Mitchell novel "Gone with the Wind" and instructed her American agent to recommend her to David O. Selznick, who was planning a film version. She remarked to a journalist, "I've cast myself as Scarlett O'Hara", and "The Observer" film critic C. A. Lejeune recalled a conversation of the same period in which Leigh "stunned us all" with the assertion that
Gone with the Wind (novel) in China. "TIME" magazine critics, Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, included the novel on their list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present (2005). In 2003 the book was listed at number 21 on the BBC's "The Big Read" poll of the UK's "best-loved novel." "Gone with the Wind" has been adapted several times for stage and screen: "Gone with the Wind" has appeared in many places and forms in popular culture: On June 30, 1986, the 50th anniversary of the day "Gone with the Wind" went on sale, the U.S. Post Office issued a 1-cent