BLONDES by PAULA YATES

BLONDES

BY PAULA YATES

THE BLURB:-

Paula Yates's last book was acclaimed by Andy Warhol as “The greatest work of art in the last decade.” Now the wisecracking blonde bombshell, bestselling writer, columnist and TV personality strikes again with a new history of the last two thousand years- the biggest pack of lies since Watergate.

The only gift for the blonde in your life.

THE REALITY:-

So much has been discussed regarding the tragic demise of Paula Yates (in the news again recently, due to the shocking and premature death of her daughter, Peaches) that it's sometimes all too easy to forget what a talented presenter and writer she was.

An icon of the 1980s, in terms of publicity she was up there with the other newsworthy blondes of her day: Princess Diana, Margaret Thatcher and Samantha Fox. Individual and opinionated, presenter of music programme The Tube and wife of Sir Bob, she was the epitome of the coolest of cool.

As a young teenager being (of course!) up to date with all the trends myself, I coveted this book. I couldn't afford it though (I believe the hardback version was £20 at the time and I had never even seen so much money!) and had to sate my interest by flicking through a copy owned by a pretentious friend. That is, until recently, when I remembered its existence and picked it up from Amazon.

Why I should be interested in a book about blondes is maybe beyond me. After all, I am naturally a very dark brunette and (apart from a pre-teen experiment with peroxide that left me with an orange fringe, and a mid-teen liking for red and white streaks) ecstatically happy to stay that way. I've also tended to admire dark haired female role models more, and think properly dark hair is more attractive than light (but don't tell my boyfriend, he's a dirty blonde!)

This book is a coffee table gem and-a-half.  Part truthful research (in the days before the internet) and part pure conjecture, it is cleverly written with a tongue-in-cheek style.  Featuring blonde (mainly female) icons from every possible age; from biblical times through to fairy tale princesses, stars of the silver screen, royalty, politics and advertising, it is certainly full of interesting content, discussed in a comedic way.  Okay, the definition of “blonde” is maybe stretched a little- I always thought Elizabeth I and Boadicea were redheads- but we'll let Paula Yates have her artistic licence as the book has a lot of depth to it and is a great and funny read.

Slightly outdated in terms of humour, you'll still love the accompanying pictures, artworks and quotes.  I would have loved to have read more books like this.  It's such a shame that Paula Yates couldn't sort her shit out.