It's My Life

There's been a big shift in the biography market in recent years. At one time, Hollywood stars were all the rage but when I suggested writing a biography of Angelina Jolie recently, it met with little or no interest from publishers. Home-grown talent and ‘instant celebrities’ are the big news now – people such as Jordan, Jade Goody, Kerry Katona and Chantelle.

I’ve written 16 biographies since I started in the business 15 years ago, my biggest seller, was Kylie Naked, a biography of singer Kylie Minogue. It sold 68,000 copies in hardback and was a Top Ten bestseller.  Other successful titles include biographies of Winona Ryder, Johnny Depp and Davina McCall.

It can be tough working as an unauthorised biographer, although, thankfully, many people prefer to read an unauthorised version of a celebrity’s life because it hasn’t been whitewashed. Having said that, I try to avoid dishing the dirt. I prefer to let readers make up their own minds about a person.

It soon becomes obvious when your subject doesn’t wish to cooperate. When I approached Winona Ryder, her publicist sent me a strongly-worded letter urging me to hold off because it was an “inappropriate time”. She then went on to say she’d love to work with me in the future, which I found strange because she’d never met me. Publicists often use delaying tactics to throw you off course.

I got into this business by accident. I was working as a graphic designer in the record industry when a friend suggested putting a book together about Cliff Richard’s recording sessions. Cliff endorsed the book and wrote the foreword – and it did very well. Encouraged, I later wrote a lavishly illustrated book about the Rolling Stones. But my first "serious" biography was about Winona Ryder.

Winona made a fascinating subject. I’d been a huge fan since her first film, Lucas. There was a vulnerability about her which made her stand out. Nobody has ever done teenage angst as well.

I always start my research on the internet. In fact, if you subscribe to certain research sites you don’t really have to leave home. But I also spend a lot of time in libraries and sift through a vast number of production notes, press releases and newspapers. I do a lot of interviews, too, with the close friends or colleagues of my subjects.

I’ve been writing for publisher John Blake since 1998. They specialise in celebrity titles and published Jordan’s autobiography, which was the fastest and biggest selling celebrity autobiography ever. It sold 750,000 copies in hardback and 90,000 in paperback and it’s still going strong.

Kylie is probably the nicest person I’ve ever written about. If you’d mentioned her name back in the Eighties, I’d have cringed. But when I began to write about her, my admiration grew. And that was cemented when I met her backstage at the Birmingham NEC. She was very down to earth and had a real girl-next-door quality.

Davina was less approachable. I thought her story had all the ingredients you’d expect from a great novel – sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. But she obviously wasn’t keen on me digging out her skeletons because the shutters came down immediately. When I rang a model agency where she’d worked, they were initially happy to talk to me. But later, they told me they couldn’t help, so I presume they must have spoken to Davina’s agent.

I’m currently working on a biography of the actor Ray Winstone, which is due out next Spring. Ray was a boxer before he went into acting and had a very colourful background. You could never imagine him in a romantic movie. He’s always regarded as the ultimate hard man. But what he does, he does well.

It’s very satisfying putting a person’s life in order and it’s such a thrill to see your name on a front cover of a new book. I always wanted to be famous as a kid but I couldn’t sing or act. This was the next best thing.