Cilla Black: What's it all about?

Reviewed by LIANE VOISEY

The pop autobiography invariably contains a scandal, something the newspapers never found out, just to boost the book sales. But Cilla Black doesn't bother.

Her career of 40 years demonstrates that a star's life need not always have been lived with sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, it can be just lived. No secrets, no scandal.

Black observes in the book that she could have written an autobiography at any time in her 40-year career, but she didn't. Unlike some 20-something celebrity memoirs, money was never her driving force.

Many times she writes that she would have done it all for nothing - she enjoyed getting up on stage and singing and expected nothing in return.

The papers knew she was a millionaire, she says, before she knew herself.

She became without doubt one of Britain's most treasured personalities, the youngest woman to have her own TV show, and she remained at the top of her game with viewing favourites Surprise Surprise and Blind Date.

The key to her success was widely thought to be that she had the common touch.

She was not conventionally pretty. A stage presence and memorable voice were her distinctions.

Despite the popularity of her shows, the public knew little of her private life.

Never one to indulge in headline-grabbing behaviour, she was happily married to Bobby Willis, also her manager, for more than 30 years and was protective of her privacy.

Born Priscilla Maria Veronica White in Liverpool in 1943, Black paints a vivid picture of growing up in a gritty, post-war Britain of the late 40s.

By the time she was 16 she was a key player on the emerging Mersey music scene. She shared manager Brian Epstein with the Beatles, who wrote several of her hits, including Love of the Loved.

In her heyday she was selling 100,000 records a day.

She describes a rigidly Catholic upbringing from which she ultimately escaped but it remains there in the background. Her success was achieved against all the odds.

She was brought up in one of Liverpool's poorest streets and lacked any experience in singing beyond her kitchen table.

She deals frankly with several personal tragedies, the loss of beloved manager Brain Epstein, John Lennon, Frankie Howerd, Linda McCartney, a stillborn baby daughter and the deaths of both parents and her husband Bobby.

She and Bobby were best friends as well as husband and wife. He never left her side.

Black writes honestly about the gap his death from cancer left in her life and learning to cope with his long illness.

Bobby would force her to go to work to film Blind Date only because he didn't want anybody to know he was so ill, she writes.

His advice to her had always been just to carry on. This attitude helped her through the difficult times after his death.

One tragic event came too late to be mentioned in the book. Last August masked raiders invaded Black's Buckinghamshire home while her youngest son, Jack, 22, was alone in the house. After beating him with a crowbar they escaped with jewellery, cash and gold worth more than £1 million ($2.7 million).

A source of strength for Black through the difficult times were certain family members and friends to whom she had always been close.

Among them were a group she calls the "gay mafia", including showbiz personalities Dale Winton, Paul O'Grady (aka drag queen Lily Savage) and Christopher Biggins. Each in his own way made her laugh, and made her feel not so alone.

Her attitude now: she's sexty - not sixty - and she still goes out dancing until 5.30am. What's it all about? A life well spent.

* Vintage/Ebury, $59.95 (hardback)