Fools Rush In - Anthea Turner > Reviews > What a Turner-round

Author's product rating:   

Degree of Information	High
How easy was it to read / get information from	Easy
How interesting was the book?	Captivating
How useful was it?	Very useful
Would you read it again?	Yes
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Dispelling any preconcieved ideas
Disadvantages:	Reading how somebody can be so naive

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Shhh…don’t tell anyone but I have a confession to make…I’ve just read Anthea Turner’s autobiography, and do you know I couldn’t put it down. There, confession over.

I don’t know why it is that the public opinion of Mrs. Grant Bovey is so bad or why she receives so much detrimental press. I can understand that when she had an affair behind the back of her ex-husband, the D.J Peter Powell, that the press jumped on her, but lets face the reality folks, she wasn’t the first and in no way will be the last woman to have an affair during an unhappy marriage. I could even understand the public perception of her when ‘those’ photos from her recent marriage were printed; even I, at the time, thought that having your wedding sponsored by a choccy bar was just a tad in bad taste. But, if you are an individual that likes to make up their own mind about a star then read this book, your preconceived ideas will be blown out of the water.

I picked the book up while browsing through the local bookshop, and because I’ve never had a problem with the former ‘personality of the year’, I had a quick flick through. My first impression was how well it had been written. This was somebody who had taken the time to write something that was entertaining, funny and from the heart, and if I’m honest her writing style sold me the book.

Starting from when she was very young, this autobiographical account of Ms. Turner’s life is at face value an honest account of growing up and becoming one of Britain’s best-known faces. It is sad when she recounts the pain caused by her younger sister’s death, having suffered from Spina Bifida since birth, yet the whole book is splattered with humour and she has an uncanny way of seeing the funny side of her bad press.

Detail after detail of her life is written about, and you gradually become to realise that the press have a huge amount to do with how the public see her, and very little of the public’s opinion is because of what she has actually done. Of course I am not naïve enough to think that this book does not have it’s fair share of exaggeration, I am sure that like any star writing an autobiography, a great deal has been written to cushion her, but having read from cover to cover, the book comes across as being reasonably honest and able to face facts.

The whole book, which as far as I am aware is written solely by Anthea herself, explains in her own words why she has made the decisions she has been ridiculed for, and why, perhaps, the public regard her as they do. Anthea Turner comes across as an everyday type of soul that because of her fame has had her exploits examined and manipulated by the media; justly or not.

The cover price for this hardback book is £16.99, although I admit I didn’t pay this as the book was on offer. There are two sections of photographs from the media and from her personal albums, and the book concludes with her wedding to Grant Bovey and the much publicised ‘Flake Gate’ controversy, in which Anthea explains why exactly it happened like it did. I can’t say that after reading the book, aptly titled ‘Fools Rush In’, that my opinion of Anthea Turner has changed drastically, as I always thought that she was a talented presenter as well as being a little naïve in some of her actions. But what it has shown me is that, as with any celebrity in today’s world you cannot always believe what you read in the press, and that there is always another side to any coin, even if sometimes it has been gilded a little.