__________________ 'Celia Walden's memoir of George Best near the end of his life is a beautiful portrait of genius in tragic, terminal decline' - Tony Parsons 'Funny, affectionate and tragically sad by turns, and the book actually sheds new light on the ex-footballer' - Independent 'A touching insight into George Best the man - and the media circus that made him' - Economist __________________ A unique and moving memoir of a young journalist's summer in the company of George Best, in the year before he died August, 2003. Celia Walden, a young reporter, receives an unusual phone call from her editor. She is to drop everything and fly to Malta in an attempt to track down a legendary footballer and keep him from the press. George Best, an alcoholic with his personal life in chaos, isn't, however, the easiest man to find. But the unlikely friendship that develops between George and Celia reveals an intelligent and complex human being. Babysitting George is a tender account of a unique relationship between a young woman and a dying star, which questions the exploitative nature of fame and tabloid journalism, the horrors of addiction and the humane, implausible friendships that can change one's life forever.
Celia Walden was born in Paris in 1975 and now lives in London. She is the Senior Feature Writer for the Daily Telegraph, GQ Magazine's motoring correspondent and an interviewer for Glamour magazine. She is also a regular on a number of television programmes, from the Lorraine Kelly show to Sky News. Her first novel, Harm's Way, was published in 2008.
Title: Babysitting George
Author: Walden, Celia
ISBN: 9781408822203
Binding:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publication Date: 2012-05-10
Number of Pages: 272
Weight: 0.1815 kg
Funny, moving and shot-through with a clear-eyed, unsentimental humanity, Celia Walden's memoir of George Best near the end of his life is a beautiful portrait of genius in tragic, terminal decline * Tony Parsons *
Funny, affectionate and tragically sad by turns, and the book actually sheds new light on the ex-footballer * Independent *
Achingly sad and sometimes comical ... A compulsively readable memoir * Mail on Sunday *
Walden's book is as much an account of the making of a young journalist as it is of the ruin of a great talent. It is a strange, revealing and rather disturbing achievement * Daily Mail *
A touching insight into George Best the man - and the media circus that made him * Economist *