Cliff Richard: The Bachelor Boy
by Steve Turner

Is he or isn’t he?

To celebrate Richard’s 50th anniversary in the business, his official biographer has complied a book of quotes from Cliff and his many associates. It’s necessarily episodic and someone who knows little about Cliff would have difficulty following his story. On the other hand, the quality reproduction of so many colour photographs aims this at fans. There are shots of Cliff at home and on holiday with celebrity friends but, oddly enough, none of his father. Poor proofreading and pointless interviews let the book down. Freddy Cannon “can’t remember anything about him”, so why’s he here?

Elsewhere in contentious entries, it’s recently come to light that General Franco fixed the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest for Spain to win, encouraging tourism. Cliff claimed he knew he had won all along, but songwriter Bill Martin thinks he lost because the BBC couldn’t afford to host it for a second year.

Most apparent is Cliff’s commitment to his career. He’s a born entertainer, which explains the book’s title: he’s never been interested in marriage and, according to late Shadow Tony Meehan, was put off sex after seeing a woman washing her armpits! Intriguingly, Cliff doesn’t go to church, though says, “If we ignore our spirituality, we live at less than half our potential.”

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

ISBN 9781844420377

Reviewed by Spencer Leigh
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