Smile Vicky! (Learning to Fly - Victoria Beckham)

Member Name: PerfectlyPink

Product:	Learning to Fly - Victoria Beckham
Date:	27/02/02 (669 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite entertaining

Disadvantages: Nothing incredibly special

"She just can't smile, it always looks so un-natural!" - that was my view on Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice). My friend had just bought her autobiography and said it was really good and her opinion of Posh had totally changed. She lent it to me. It sat waiting for me to read it for quite a while. It's so big and fat it doesn't look like a book you can just pick up and read. This was a big 'project read' for me! I did flick through the photos though: there's 4 sections of colour photographs which takes you briefly through her 27 years through the eyes of her family really. You won't find any photoshoot shots in this section. It's mainly old family snaps.

Eventually, I picked it up and began to read. If I'm completly honest, I did get into it a bit. Victoria Adams grew up as a normal girl with the same dream as most little 8-year old. At school she was (these are the things which shocked me!) fat, spotty and unpopular. In her book she reveals that she has polycystic ovaries which made her gain weight and have bad acne into adulthood. Makes you feel a little bit sorry for her - even though now she does have a perfect little family, a massive bank balance, stylists to make her look like she never has a bad hair/skin day and the rest!

As the book goes on, it develops from being the story of any young girl who goes to theatre school to this big dramatic novel...flights here there and everywhere, kidnap and murder threats, magical marriages, secret meetings, beating off photgraphers, sacking people, slating people to the MAX and random holidays in exotic places.

27 seems very early on in life to be writing an autobiography - even though Victoria Beckham does seem to have alot to tell. But when I was reading it I couldn't help thinking that she wrote most of it to get back at newspapers who print 'lies' about her. She slags off alot of people in her book - she goes on about Geri and how
they were great friends and then nearer the end of the book how she didn't know her anymore and all about how she betrayed her. She goes on about how all the United Nations work Geri did was just for publicity. You get the feeling Victoria Beckham has alot of negative and bitter feelings...! And a whole lot of resentment. She doesn't like Alex Ferguson much either which seems to be down to him not giving poor little David enough time off. To be fair, they have got a little son which needs looking after! She isn't afraid of exposing the people she doesn't like! She gives all (well, probably not many at all but it seems like alot!) of details about how her security guard/bodyguard person Mark completly betrayed her by leaking to newspapers where she was going on holiday etc.

You definately get a strong sense of how she feels about her family - she loves them alot. And her family too. In the part of the book where her celebrity is in full swing, she keeps trying to convince her readers that she is 'normal'. For instance, she describes a time where she is staying at Elton John's house in Nice and Joan Collins just happens to be there. Anyway, poor old Vicky has a washed out bikini and Nikes on (or so she claims) and there's Joan with her Versace on.

It's not a challenging book to read, kids could read it. Although having said that there is some swearing in it! All in all, it's quite a fairytale of a book. Mrs. Beckham was never deprived as a child, it's not a rag to riches story. It's more a story of luck. She'll be the first to admit that she wasn't the most gifted of all the students at Laine's Theatre Arts (another place she slates!) People who say she talentless aren't exactly right. It takes alot of talent to perform like she does and that's one thing I respect about her. Some bits are quite slushy (e.g David Beckham bits!) and you might think 'ugh' when you're readi
ng it. OK, confession time: I didn't find it as bad as I thought I would! I wouldn't exaclty recommend it unless you're a fan of hers...it's not the most inspiring story, just a step-by-step account of her life so far.

But I still don't think she can smile properly!

Summary: