Wendy Richard - From High Heels To Cardigans! (My Life Story - Wendy Richard)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	My Life Story - Wendy Richard
Date:	23/03/01 (1653 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a good read, interesting, informative, easy to get into, nice photos

Disadvantages: slightly expensive

Whether you think of her as sexy Miss. Brahms in Are You Being Served? or dowdy Pauline Fowler in EastEnders, chances are you will know who Wendy Richard is. One of Britain’s most popular actresses, she has now celebrated forty years in showbiz.

I have met Wendy twice – once when she was famous for AYBS and once during her EastEnders tenure. In 1980, she toured in Blithe Spirit which came to Lincoln. I remember her at the VIP reception after the first night. She was wearing jeans, smoking and my mother called her “common”!

By the time I met her again in the mid- to late-eighties, she was in Skegness at another VIP event. The organisers had made her a cake with a frog on it (She loves frogs) and she seemed a different person, quite the lady. I recall her as being polite, charming and a very warm person.

These memories, plus my enjoyment of the two TV programmes she is most famous for, prompted me to want to read her autobiography when it came out late last year.

As regular readers of my opinions will know, I am a big reader of autobiographies and although Wendy Richard’s is not the best one I have ever read, it is certainly worth a look and is a good, easy read.

She seems very open about her life, not as ‘in-yer-face’ as Barbara Windsor but thankfully nowhere near as private as June Whitfield. I found myself easily hearing Wendy speaking the words, even though Lizzie Wiggins has a writing credit too. I was not surprised by the book, it confirmed my impressions of Wendy and yes, I do like her.

She was born Wendy Emerton in 1943 and spent most of her childhood living alone with her mother, after her father died in 1954. When she was just eleven, she found his body, after he had committed suicide. She describes that time as “one of the saddest and also one of the most frightening days in my life”. (p.15)

One of the recurring themes in the book seems t
o be Wendy’s loneliness, not that she dwells on it to gain sympathy, but it did strike me throughout.

She was an only child, her parents worked hard and she was looked after by nannies. She has a half-sister she has never met. Although she says her childhood was happy, she tellingly comments that her parents “regularly made time for me whenever they could”. (p.15) After her father died, her mother worked full-time and sent Wendy to boarding school.

The theme of loneliness continues – Her mother died in 1972 and she married Len Black just four days later. She admits to marrying him because “I was frightened of being on my own.” (p.68-9) They split up four months later.

She was then with Will Thorpe for some eight years, marrying in 1980. But he was violent and abusive, leading her to have to run away from him several times, walking the streets of London until she felt it was safe to go home. “The physical violence was hell enough but his verbal abuse was wearing me down beyond measure.” (p.107) She finally left him in 1982.

After a relationship with a man twelve years younger than her, she then met Paul Glorney in 1986. He was to become her third husband, but once again, things went sour. At their wedding in 1990, Wendy paid for almost everything, including her own wedding ring! He enjoyed her money, but seemed to be quite disinterested in her as a person. “It seemed as if the only reason he wanted to be with me was for me to write out cheques for him.” (p.154) They split up in 1994.

Back to life on her own, living with only her trusted dog, Shirley, who she obviously adores. (Her personal photos in the book include several of the gorgeous Cairn terrier!) She describes the time spent when outside of her work, Shirley was her only companion.

Thankfully, her story has a happy ending. She is now living with her partner of some five years, John Burns, an
d states “I think I have found happiness at long last, both with John and inside myself.” (p.266)

Of course, the book does not only detail her relationships over the years, but those were some of the most fascinating and personal parts of it. Her career is impressive, as we know, and she goes into great detail about her thirteen years in AYBS and her fifteen years (and counting!) in EastEnders.

She writes honestly about her breast cancer and a further cancer scare she had in 1999. I found her experiences very interesting and her words would be encouraging for anyone who has faced cancer in its many guises. Her bravery is there for all to see, although Wendy would probably be too modest to acknowledge it herself. Her strength and determination shine out too, as well as her commitment to her job. She returned to work just three days after her operations!

Being childless herself, she has a touching maternal relationship with her screen sons, Todd Carty (Mark) and James Alexandrou (Martin). She seems popular with her fellow cast members and production crew and her warmth is apparent throughout her autobiography.

She works hard for several charities, loves the Royal Family, was awarded the MBE last year and makes a great cup of tea, so we are told! It is little things like these which seem to display all the sides to Wendy, so she grows in our eyes and feels very ‘real’ by the end of the 270 or so pages. It felt like I had been having a chat with her myself.

Overall, although £16.99 is quite pricey for a book which will only take you a couple of days to read (Unless, like me, you take nineteen pages of notes!!), I recommend it for all fans of Wendy, AYBS or EastEnders. There are no bitter recriminations or bitchiness here. Wendy is a kind, generous woman and comes over as a lovely person who has led an interesting life.

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For any fans, she
recommends two websites, which are http://pages.prodigy.net/glc/wrhp/html/wr and www.wendyrichard.com

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