All About Us: My Story - Peter Andre

...there is.

All About Us - My Story by Peter Andre is 274 pages long, so only takes a couple of days to finish and it is a good read. It never really got boring and is easy to get into and full of interesting information. I'm not sure if he wrote this himself or with a ghost-writer, but you can hear his voice coming through the words on the page.

I like Peter Andre. When he's being interviewed on TV with Katie, he seems ...
...as an autobiography, this ticks all the boxes. You learn about Peter's childhood and family background. There are lots of great photos included. He writes in a frank and honest way and is not afraid to criticise himself and his behaviour. He reveals details of his previous relationships - including Scary Spice Melanie Brown and All Saints singer Melanie Blatt - but in a way which seems rather sweet and self-deprecating most of the time.

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My fourteen-year-old daughter is a big fan of Katie Price aka Jordan. She has her books and thinks she's wonderful. So it was that we ended up with a copy of Peter Andre's autobiography in our house. It was a library copy and I found it in my daughter's bedroom. It was due to go back, but I thought I'd read it first - so I did.

I wouldn't say I was a big fan of Katie Price or Peter Andre, but I don't mind them and wish them nothing but happiness. I even saw Peter in concert a couple of years ago, when he did a gig in Bristol after coming out of the jungle. My daughters wanted to see him, so we took them and it was a good show.

I read a lot of autobiographies and I'm not really of the opinion that someone has to be a certain age to write their life story. If you've got something interesting to say, that's fine, write a book. Peter Andre is in his thirties, he's had a successful music career with dips in popularity and he's married to a famous model. Let's face it, Peter and Katie are almost continuously in the public eye so I figured there was enough for him to write about - and there is.

All About Us - My Story by Peter Andre is 274 pages long, so only takes a couple of days to finish and it is a good read. It never really got boring and is easy to get into and full of interesting information. I'm not sure if he wrote this himself or with a ghost-writer, but you can hear his voice coming through the words on the page.

I like Peter Andre. When he's being interviewed on TV with Katie, he seems to be able to control her outbursts pretty well and he comes across as a genuinely nice bloke who really adores his wife and family. As well as Harvey - Katie's son by footballer Dwight Yorke - they have two children together - Junior (born in 2005) and Princess Tiaami born earlier this year. This book was published in 2006, so Harvey and Junior are in it, but Princess wasn't born by then. No doubt a further volume or updated book will be out soon!

In many ways, as an autobiography, this ticks all the boxes. You learn about Peter's childhood and family background. There are lots of great photos included. He writes in a frank and honest way and is not afraid to criticise himself and his behaviour. He reveals details of his previous relationships - including Scary Spice Melanie Brown and All Saints singer Melanie Blatt - but in a way which seems rather sweet and self-deprecating most of the time.

I was especially interested in reading about his depression - as I have experienced this too - and what he was doing during the time he was out the public eye. I was also curious to read about his time in the jungle for I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here - the show which made him successful again and where he first met Katie Price.

So there are plenty of good things about the book and I did enjoy it overall. But - You just knew there was going to be a 'but'! - there are disadvantages as well. At times, it reads like a personal diary he is confiding in and this made me feel awkward, like I was reading something I shouldn't.

A lot of it is obviously written for Katie as he reassures her over and over again in a way which I found annoying. For example, he'll write something positive about an ex-girlfriend, then immediately reassure Katie that although the ex had good qualities, they could never beat Katie as Katie is perfect, wonderful, his one true love, blah blah blah…

Then there are parts of the book where he complains about Katie - how she can be stubborn and moody, how she treats her parents in a superior way to how she treats Peter's parents, how she is jealous and possessive and selfish, how she turns into a flirtatious cowbag after a few drinks and so on. Some of this in interesting, but a lot of it feels like it should stay behind the closed doors of the marital home and is none of our business.

Similarly, I am really not interested in details of Katie and Peter's sex life. I would prefer that they kept that side of their life private. It may be my advancing years, but I'd prefer to hear about their romance than their sex. I found it much more interesting that they like playing board games like Monopoly and Trivial pursuit than any bedroom games they care to share with the public.

While overall, the book made me like Peter a bit more and Katie a bit less, one thing that really annoyed me was the description of their fairytale 'Barbie and Ken' wedding. While I do not resent their high-earning potential, I found it offensive when Peter explains they had no worries about splashing out on a huge wedding, but stopped after they spent a million pounds. That seemed awful to me, how you can waste - yes, waste - that much money on one day. God knows how many YEARS most of us could live on that amount! Peter's hit single 'Insania' came to mind at that point.

This isn't going to convert many people from hating Peter and Katie to loving them. As a couple, they come across as a bit naff but harmless and I was still left with this opinion after finishing the autobiography. It's worth a read if you are even a casual fan of either of the couple. My lasting impression is that they are a strong couple, great parents and live an interesting life - but are nowhere near perfect. All About Us - My Story is similar - a good read, but by no means perfect.

One to borrow, not buy - especially with a cover price of £17.99. And it's not like they need the money, is it? 

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