The saga of Paula, Michael and Bob has all the elements of a Shakespearian tragedy. The Paula, Michael and Bob in question are, of course, Paula Yates, Michael Hutchence and Bob Geldof, a trio whose desperately sad interaction was, it seemed, almost stage-managed by the media and laid bare for the whole world to see.
"Everything you know is wrong", was the message that Paula posted on her front door in the last months of her life and, according to her long-term friend and author of this book Gerry Agar, everything was wrong...
This book has what was missing from the frequent press reports that surrounded this unlikely threesome - the feelings. It tells of Paula's unhappiness in her marriage long before Michael Hutchence came into her life. It relates her stormy on-off relationship with him; her increasing dependence on him and her staunchly denied lapses into drug and alcohol abuse, eventually culminating in her untimely death.
It talks of Bob's pain at losing his wife and spills the beans on his manipulation of her finances after their separation. It tells of his unceasing efforts to protect his children from the turmoil and self-destructive behaviour that categorised Paula's life with Hutchence.
And it talks of Hutchence's love for those very children, coupled with his increasing uncertainty about a lifelong commitment to their mother. His indecision continued even after Yates gave birth to his daughter - a daughter that Geldof is now raising as one of his own.
This is a very even-handed and fair book, in which no blame is apportioned to any of the key players - as in life itself, each is sometimes the hero, sometimes the villain. It is an attempt to set the record straight, to untangle the myths created by the media, revealing the truth about this star-crossed threesome. And, because someone who had close access to all the parties concerned wrote it, the book appears genuine and truthful.
This insightful modern tragedy has many elements - love, hate, obsession, joy, despair, death and destruction. Because it has such depth, it is never less than an intriguing read, made even more poignant by the photographs the author has selected to illustrate her work.
This, finally, is the truth that has remained hidden for years. If this book were a work of fiction, the reader would probably struggle to believe it. As a non-fiction book, it is sufficiently bizarre to capture and hold the readers attention from first page to last while, at the same time, being a love story of such tenderness that, at times it brings tears to the eyes.
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN: 1843170248
Price: £18.00 h/b
Date Reviewed: December 2003
My Rating: 3.5/5
