Customer Reviews

A Single Step

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Given the current media interest in the breakup of her marriage to Paul McCartney, I picked this up to learn more about the woman the tabloids all call a golddigger.

As an autobiography, it's not the best I've ever read. So many incidents are vague in terms of time frame, and especially names of people involved that it gives credence to those accusations that Ms. Mills has embellished her life story. There are two separate stories of her being threatened by people (a lesbian roommate, a french magazine employee) in such a similar and bizarre way that I was left wondering what really happened. The latter incident is used to explain her sudden flight from France and back to her on-again off-again boyfriend Alfie Karmal. Apparently, a former prostitute to rich Arabs is claiming that Ms. Mills was enjoying the same lifestyle during this period when her book says she had a high-paying contract with a French cosmetics company. She never mentions the company's name. I found it a strange thing to leave out.

It's not my intention to point another finger at Ms. Mills and scream "liar". I'm judging the book solely on its merits and as it's an autobiography she's entitled to write whatever she likes. It's just not very effective.

I would have enjoyed learning more about her charity work between the time of her accident and meeting Paul McCartney. It seems like this is the period when she re-invented herself, and I mean that in a totally positive way. She could very easily have hit the bottle after her accident, but she found a purpose her prior years of life had been missing.

Overall, I give the book 2.5 stars. It's an easy read, but the omission of basic facts is distracting.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. "Albert Schweitzer" This book has so many wonderful lessons to share. I wish that my Mother, who lost her leg 17 years before her death could have lived to read it. Words can not express how much healing I got from this book.

Heather Mills McCartney has received a tremendous amount of criticism in the press, and this book has been nit-picked in reviews. There have been accusations of exaggeration of her near-Dickensian childhood, and subsequent rough road in life, among other things. And, after all was said and done, she nabbed herself a Beatle.
Well, I read this book, putting all that aside, and, although this may not be the best biography of the century, neither is it nearly as bad as critics have made it seem. Heather Mills had a life before Paul McCartney, and her childhood of abuse and neglect seems plausible to me. Her father physically and verbally abused her mother, who was quiet until the day she left her husband, and her three children, and moved to London with a stage actor. This left the pre-teen Heather to do the lion's share of the housework and cooking for her father, older brother, and younger sister. Also, with their mother gone, the father was free to carry out physical and emotional abuse on his children, which he did, frequently.

Heather Mills grew up in a hurry, both emotionally and physically, and her tales of her precocious puberty are ones I could relate to. At age 13, Heather's father, a bit of a vagabond and dreamer who was always in debt and always moving, ended up in prison for two years after embezzling money. Heather and her sister were sent to live with her mother and boyfriend in London, while her brother went to live with their paternal grandfather in Brighton. Heather could not get along with her step-father, and, at age 14, ran away to live and work at a carnival. After this, she was briefly homeless and slept under the arches at Waterloo Station. Life forced her to grow up in a hurry, and gave her a drive and ambition that is perhaps not admired in a woman as much as it would be in a man.

Eventually, Heather moves back to her old hometown and moves in with her working-class boyfriend, at age 16. Then, driven to succeed, she leaves him, moves back to London, and enters a series of modeling competitions. From here she models, moves to Paris, opens and sells several small businesses, and enters into an ill-advised marriage at 21. She leaves this husband for a Yugoslavian ski instructor, and finds herself immersed in the first days of the civil war when Serbs crash through Slovenia to reach Croatia.

All of these things take place before her tragic accident in 1993, where she is crossing the street and is hit by a police motorcyle, and loses her left leg after it is amputated below the knee. This event is well documented elsewhere, but she writes of her pain and struggle for recovery, and how it leads her to become a leading advocate in Europe for amputees. Her earlier experiences in Yugoslavia lead to her involvement in the banning of land mines, and the shipment of thousands of artificial limbs to victims all over the world.

And, after all this, the young but mature woman with this dramatic past meets and falls in love with the widowed Paul McCartney. This may seem like the stuff of fiction, but it is all true. Paul McCartney's first wife, Linda, suffered the same slings and arrows as Heather has, also being accused of exaggerating her past, and of being manipulative and unworthy of the lofty position of Mrs. McCartney. It takes a lot of guts to suffer through such press scrutiny, and Heather describes how the press became very resentful of her, once she started to be tight-lipped about her relationship with Paul.

Heather Mills doesn't meet Paul McCartney until the last quarter of the book, and although she describes their meeting and courtship, painting Paul as wonderful and romantic, there is no salacious gossip. She doesn't speak of any conflicts with Paul's children, nor any other negative aspects. She does talk briefly of meeting and admiring George Harrison, and how Paul handled his death. However, this is Heather's story, how she lived and learned and became stronger because of it. I do not know if she exaggerated, or how much was left out. I know that I enjoyed reading this book, as the story of someone who managed to make it through very trying circumstances, and go on to lead an amazing life.

Also, the author's proceeds go directly to Adopt-A-Minefield, so this book is not being used as a way to "cash in" which has been another criticism.

Not quite what I expected, but interesting. HM wrote this book just before her marriage to Sir Paul, so there is very little in it about their relationship. Pity. But she tells a compelling story in her own right, from her childhood with an abusive father and bolter mother up through having her leg torn off in a traffic accident, then on again to her being a crusader to distribute prosthetic limbs and ban land mines. (Oh, and she was also a model.) Perhaps a bit of "St. Heather" going on? But her childhood was Dickensian and she lost a pregnancy and she had horrible relationships with all the primary men in her life, including father and stepfather and even perhaps brother plus lovers, and she was for a time homeless and living under bridges. She comes right out at one point and says that she craves money for security. She portrays Paul as a romantic suitor, not at all pushing the status symbols he was entitled to. Had he read her book and fathomed its implications (men, $, and pregnancy), I doubt he would have married her.

Heather Mills McCartney has received a tremendous amount of criticism in the press, and this book has been nit-picked in reviews. There have been accusations of exaggeration of her near-Dickensian childhood, and subsequent rough road in life, among other things. And, after all was said and done, she nabbed herself a Beatle.

Well, I read this book, putting all that aside, and, although this may not be the best biography of the century, neither is it nearly as bad as critics have made it seem. Heather Mills had a life before Paul McCartney, and her childhood of abuse and neglect seems plausible to me. Her father physically and verbally abused her mother, who was quiet until the day she left her husband, and her three children, and moved to London with a stage actor. This left the pre-teen Heather to do the lion's share of the housework and cooking for her father, older brother, and younger sister. Also, with their mother gone, the father was free to carry out physical and emotional abuse on his children, which he did, frequently.

Heather Mills grew up in a hurry, both emotionally and physically, and her tales of her precocious puberty are ones I could relate to. At age 13, Heather's father, a bit of a vagabond and dreamer who was always in debt and always moving, ended up in prison for two years after embezzling money. Heather and her sister were sent to live with her mother and boyfriend in London, while her brother went to live with their paternal grandfather in Brighton. Heather could not get along with her step-father, and, at age 14, ran away to live and work at a carnival. After this, she was briefly homeless and slept under the arches at Waterloo Station. Life forced her to grow up in a hurry, and gave her a drive and ambition that is perhaps not admired in a woman as much as it would be in a man.

Eventually, Heather moves back to her old hometown and moves in with her working-class boyfriend, at age 16. Then, driven to succeed, she leaves him, moves back to London, and enters a series of modeling competitions. From here she models, moves to Paris, opens and sells several small businesses, and enters into an ill-advised marriage at 21. She leaves this husband for a Yugoslavian ski instructor, and finds herself immersed in the first days of the civil war when Serbs crash through Slovenia to reach Croatia.

All of these things take place before her tragic accident in 1993, where she is crossing the street and is hit by a police motorcyle, and loses her left leg after it is amputated below the knee. This event is well documented elsewhere, but she writes of her pain and struggle for recovery, and how it leads her to become a leading advocate in Europe for amputees. Her earlier experiences in Yugoslavia lead to her involvement in the banning of land mines, and the shipment of thousands of artificial limbs to victims all over the world.

And, after all this, the young but mature woman with this dramatic past meets and falls in love with the widowed Paul McCartney. This may seem like the stuff of fiction, but it is all true. Paul McCartney's first wife, Linda, suffered the same slings and arrows as Heather has, also being accused of exaggerating her past, and of being manipulative and unworthy of the lofty position of Mrs. McCartney. It takes a lot of guts to suffer through such press scrutiny, and Heather describes how the press became very resentful of her, once she started to be tight-lipped about her relationship with Paul.

Heather Mills doesn't meet Paul McCartney until the last quarter of the book, and although she describes their meeting and courtship, painting Paul as wonderful and romantic, there is no salacious gossip. She doesn't speak of any conflicts with Paul's children, nor any other negative aspects. She does talk briefly of meeting and admiring George Harrison, and how Paul handled his death. However, this is Heather's story, how she lived and learned and became stronger because of it. I do not know if she exaggerated, or how much was left out. I know that I enjoyed reading this book, as the story of someone who managed to make it through very trying circumstances, and go on to lead an amazing life.

Also, the author's proceeds go directly to Adopt-A-Minefield, so this book is not being used as a way to "cash in" which has been another criticism.

I just couldn't. Okay, I will admit that even though I am a little biased, I decided to give her story a shot. I saw this at my local dollar store, and I read it. Needless to say, I quickly recycled it. It was not even worth my dollar, though I am glad that that is where the publisher decided to sell the book, so no one else has to spend the twenty some dollars it supposedly is worth.

It is just a watered down, whiny, and "basic" biography of a many-sided woman.

HOWEVER, kudos to her for being able to live her life with one leg, and for being so dedicated to animals, but I didn't need to read this to form an opinion on that, and neither do you.

Save your dollar.

Revised: 11-06.

Actually forget almost everything I wrote down there. We now know Heather Mills probably made her entire life story up. Might her autobiography be more honest if it began with a preface that said, "Why I am a gold digger..."?


For posterity, here is what I said in 2005 about "A Single Step" back before I found out what Heather truly is:

Heather Mills McCartney comes through these pages as a delightfully tough, caring woman, who has endured more in her still-young lifetime than any human should have to bear. I read along glued to each page as she took me from her difficult childhood in a working class home, through an adolescence that included homelessness and brushes with the law, up through the horrific motorcycle accident in which she lost her leg. After following her through of all of that, I was delighted when her story took its upswing and she met and later married the great love of her life, Paul McCartney. I felt like cheering for Heather! Good karma had come home to roost at last!

Something I also admire about this remarkable woman is that she does not use the space of this (auto)biography as an exercise in vanity, she makes full use of her newfound place in the public eye to campaign for such worthy causes as a global ban on land mines, and also to inform about the evils of international child labor, which forces Third World children as young as three into cruel employment in sweat shops and agicultural concerns. I see in Heather Mills McCartney not just a fine woman I now admire very much, but the makings of one of the great humanitarians of our time.

(11-06: Wow, was I ever wrong!)

Heather Mills McCartney is a survivor - true. She's done a lot for amputees and victims of mine fields - true. But does she deserve the media hype? I don't think so. She turned her life around and has done a lot of good things, but I really didn't care to read all about it. A lot of people have had hard lives, but let's face it, she was almost unknown until she married one of the most famous men in the world.

The book was a total bore - Heather, if you had hired a better ghost writer, I might have felt differently.

This book has been out for at least three years, but its price is what drew me to it! I like biographies and will give almost anyone's a chance. The beginning chapters, describing her childhood, were written in a very amateurish style, but I found them interesting reading nonetheless. Oddly, the writing style improved quite a bit in the middle of the book and I could not put it down. Toward the end of the book, my interest waned, but I kept at it. I do not regret it.

I know the rags to riches story has been told a million times, but I never get sick of it. Like the song by Paul McCartney says people seem to be sick of those silly love songs, but it just isn't so. I also don't think many of us will tire of stories like Heather's story. The person she became was amazing after being raised in a home with a violent, narcissistic father and a mother who left her three children with that father so she herself could escape her bad marriage. Heather Mills has guts and determination and was painfully honest about her failings too.

I am not sure where a previous rater found her criticizing Paul McCarney for being uncompromising. I must have missed that part. She spoke of Paul, Linda and their children with great respect. It changed the opinion I had of her from what I read in the media. Surprisingly, I would recommend this book.

I found the premise for this book interesting: Heather Mills McCartney wanted to "set the record straight" once and for all, dispel any and all rumors about her past. It's a ripe one, all right. In just 33 years, she has lived more than one lifetime's worth of travail, and I personally admire her. Frankly, I think she is the perfect match for Paul McCartney at this stage of his life, and I hope they will be happy together. Hopefully, the press and paparazzi will leave them alone (fat chance...) and they can have some peace and quiet, which she most definitely needs after all she has endured. A pretty good read overall.