October 2008 Archives

I've never been one for reading celebrity autobiographies but I've always had a soft spot for big Frank Bruno, having supported him ever since he appeared on the boxing horizon when I was just 9 years old! So when I came across his 2006 book 'Fighting Back' in a Salvation Army charity shop a few weeks ago, I paid my money and took my chance. I must say it was the best £1.95 I've spent in a long time!

Written with great honesty and clarity, the book begins with his 2003 sectioning after he went through psychiatric problems and then rewinds all the way back to his humble beginnings in south London. It takes in his relationship with his late father, run-ins with authority that prompted his move to boarding school, all the big fights, injuries, drug abuse and even his courtship, marriage and break-up with ex-wife Laura.

It couldn't have been easy for him to go into such detail, particularly that he risked opening himself up to ridicule. In taking the chance Frank has allowed me, like many others in the Sunday Times best-selling book to understand that the challenges of life come to all of us regardless of our fame or the state of our bank balance.

In my teens and early twenties, I harboured dreams of following Frank into the professional ring, until the media bug bit me. Still, now he's set me another challenge - to be able to write with such honesty and self-effacing humour in a way that sheds light into the corners of life many don't understand.

Big Up Big Frank!

Which celebrity tell-all books have you read? Did they disappoint or impress?

By the way, when you have a moment, check out our website, www.GMAgency.co.uk and tell me what you think.

I can't tell you the last time that I was so upset by a news story but earlier I just couldn't stand to watch another report on the sentencing of that pathetic individual called Luke McCormick. The former footballer was given nearly 7½ years for killing two boys and paralysing their father when he lost control of his car and ploughed into theirs, knocking it down an embankment and into several trees. McCormick was sleep deprived and blind drunk after going out on a bender and ignored advice to not drive.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, if you willingly take a life, then you should lose your own. That McCormick should be banged up for life, not a paltry seven years and four months, with the possibility of parole in 3½ years.

Poor little Arron Peak, 10 and his brother Ben, 8, won't be coming back and their father Phil may never physically recover from his own horrific injuries. Now wife Amanda will have to bear the brunt of not only her sons' murders but her husband's near total dependence on her after sustaining broken vertebrae, lung damage and a crushed spine.

Not only should McCormick be jailed for life, but his bank account should be emptied and his assets sold to pay for Phil's medical care. If the law wants to drive down crime, they should start dishing out proper sentences.

I think that the presiding judge should join McCormick in the clink for contributing to
the number of pathetic sentences handed out to evil criminals.