Paul O'Grady: The Biography - Neil Simpson

Paul O'Grady is a well know day time television presenter. He started out on his own show on ITV but soon moved over to channel 4. Almost as well know as Paul is his beloved dog Buster. The biography has been written by Neil Simpson and gives a wonderful and very detailed insight into the man himself and his childhood and also his alter-ego Lilly Savage.

THE BOOK

The book has been split into 16 chapter,
Introduction ...
...into what it takes for Paul to go out everyday and do his show. It then moves on to the first chapter where we learn all about Paul's family. They were an Irish family which moved to a Liverpool working class district. Paul grew up in a big extended family and it was at this time when he became a great friend with Cilla Black. We hear how Paul's door was always open and the neighbours were always filling their house and the men of the area were always ... more

Paul O'Grady is a well know day time television presenter. He started out on his own show on ITV but soon moved over to channel 4. Almost as well know as Paul is his beloved dog Buster. The biography has been written by Neil Simpson and gives a wonderful and very detailed insight into the man himself and his childhood and also his alter-ego Lilly Savage.

THE BOOK

The book has been split into 16 chapter,
Introduction - Live at Five
1 - the Boys from Birkenhead
2 - Breaking Free
3 - Here's Lilly
4 - Tragedy
5 - The Big Breakfast
6 - The good times
7 - Country Life
8 - Out in the Orient
9 - Warning Bells
10 - Time for a sitcom
11 - Chat Wars
12 - The Greatest Loss
13 - Back in Business
14 - The Backlash
15 - Intensive Care
16 - Back on Top

The book begins with an introduction which talks about his 5 O'clock chat show. It gives us a little insight into what it takes for Paul to go out everyday and do his show. It then moves on to the first chapter where we learn all about Paul's family. They were an Irish family which moved to a Liverpool working class district. Paul grew up in a big extended family and it was at this time when he became a great friend with Cilla Black. We hear how Paul's door was always open and the neighbours were always filling their house and the men of the area were always telling Paul of their stories from their time in the Merchant Navy which always fascinated Paul and was one of the factors which made him want to go travelling when he was older.

Paul talks about his Mother and Father and says that all through his childhood even when times were hard he never once saw them fight. He is quoted as saying he never knew what divorce was until he moved to London. He also tells about the funny stories he was subjected to listening to from crazy Aunts and Uncles, he later says that he loves to talk about these on his show. He also had the chance to read some American comic which often fell out of the sailors bags. It is from here he learnt how to draw, his sister is quoted as saying he was a very talented artist.

The story then moves on to talk about some of the jobs which Paul undertook when he left school, some of them included working in the Vauxhall factory, at the shipbuilders and as a magistrates clerk, it is here where he based some of the character of Lilly on some of the women who appeared at the court. Later Paul would take on a much more challenging job and became a care worker. We learn about the hardship Paul had to watch and how sometime Mothers would leave him looking after their children for days at a time when they said to him that they were just nipping down to the shop. He does talk about this job with some comedy included but you can sense from the way he describes some of the scenes he had to witness how hard the job was on him.

Paul also met a girl, Diane when he was 16. He was soon to discover that this girl was to make him a father. His own Mom and Dad went mad at him and soon the relationship between himself, Diane and Sharyn ended and he soon lost contact with then. Later on in the book we learn that he and Sharyn did get nanotech again and now they have a wonderful relationship and he also has a grandson from her.

Paul sadly lost his Mother and Father and he talks about the great sadness he felt over this and how it hit him hard.

The book moves on to tell us about Paul's travels and some of the jobs he did just to make enough money to survive on and then upon his return he took a job in a local pub and this is where the birth of Lilly Savage happened. There are quite a few chapters talking about Lilly and how hard Paul and his friends worked to make her the success she became. Also Paul talks openly about the worry of taking his act to the Television studio and the worry as to whether she would work on TV as the act would have to be toned down. The switch from pubs to the Television went well for Paul but he never let Lilly forget where she started and still did his tours, not just for the money but also for the fans.

Neil then writs about how Paul was persuaded to try and start appearing in public and in the media as himself and not just as Lilly. We learn how hard Paul found doing this as he had no one to hide behind. In time Paul relaxed more with his fame and then undertook the job of presenting a show as himself. The show was not a massive success but it is believed that this led the way to the Paul O'Grady show.

There is a lot of information in the Paul about Paul's long term partner and best friend Brendan. He and Paul were extremely close and he was a great rock to Paul after he suffered his first heart attack. Paul says that the heart attack really did scare him and in time he stopped his mad partying and drinking games.

After the success of Paul's show he and Brendan talk about starting their own production company, it was this which saw The Paul O'Grady show move from ITV to Chanel 4. But before this switch and the completion of the production company Paul suffered a massive blow, Brendan sadly passed away. Paul talks about how hard it was seeing the person he loved so much slowly die in front of him. He did, at Brendan's request, continue doing his daily show and would send coded messages to Brendan who was watching the show at home. Paul also tells how much his friends supported him during this sad time.

Paul found it hard to pick himself back up after the loss but given time he managed to continue with his life, but he does talk about the depression which he went through during his grieving process. He says that he would not have got over this depression if he did not have his farm to return home to and his beloved dog, Buster.

There is some talk in the book about the feud between himself and Richard and Judy as they were both producing shows to been show at the same time on different channels. Paul says that the majority of the feud was made up and he is in fact good friends with Richard and Judy.

Paul then suffers his second heart attack and this time it is more serious, he did finally manage to make a full recovery and eventually return to work but only if he would have a weeks holiday during the filming of his show.

Paul really has overcome heartache and problems to make himself a very successful chat show host, comedian and all round personality not just as Lilly Savage but also as himself.

MY OPINION

From the very first page of the book I was hooked. I found that even though the book was not written by Paul himself but instead by Neil Simpson it was still packed full of information and fascinating stories. There are loads of quotes from many of Paul's friend and also the man himself.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about how Lilly was born and how he worked all the hours he could trying to make her a success and then even when she was he never forgot his friends or fans and always went back on tour so they could once again see her.

I always thought that Paul made some of his stories up which he tells on his show and never truly believed he was great friends with all the famous people who he claims but after reading the book I now believe that the stories are indeed true and his friend he claim to have really are and they helped him through the great and sad loss of his partner. I did find reading about Brendan's death very sad and thought Paul showed true courage continuing with his show at this time because Brendan had wished he did so.

Included in the book are some great photos which show Paul and Lilly with some of his friend and there are also some which shows Paul at a very young age. I think the photos help to understand the book as you can see the real person and the emotion in the photos.

INFO

This biography has been written by Neil Simpson who has also written books on Gordon Ramsay, Charlotte Church and matt Lucas and David Walliams, he is also a reporter for the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Telegraph.

The book was published by John Blake Publishing Limited in 2007. The retail price for the book is £17.99 but I got my copy from Amazon.co.uk for £4.99 which was a complete bargain.

The book is a hardback edition and the front cover shows a picture of Paul with his dog Buster and on the back cover there are 3 photos showing Paul dressed as Lilly, in the Orient and also holding one of his comedy awards.

I would definitely recommend this book as a great read for any Paul O'Grady or Lilly Savage fans. 

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