That’s the story of my celebrity life (From Bournemouth Echo)

That’s the story of my celebrity life

11:00am Sunday 6th December 2009

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ALTHOUGH sales of celebrity memoirs are down nationally by as much as 30 per cent this year, local readers are as keen as ever to read about the lives of the rich and famous.

“We’re selling as many celebrity biographies as we were this time last year,” says Gemma Kenward, book manager at Bookends, the independent book retailer in Christchurch.

“In fact I’d say we’re busier generally than a year ago. Last year we had Julie Walters and Dawn French biographies which were selling really well in hard back and now they’re out in paperback and they’re still selling.

“Ant & Dec’s book has been selling around 15 copies a month since it came out in September which is a lot for a biography – plus I think because they’re on TV at the moment people are noticing them more and picking up their book.

“The Chris Evans and Jeremy Clarkson books are selling steadily as well.”

It has been reported that Ant & Dec’s Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story sold 26,302 copies in the week ending November 28, compared to 64,405 copies of Julie Walters’ tome, That’s Another Story, in the same week last year.

But the local evidence reflects the industry view that the category is far from dead.

“It is worth noting that the biggest selling authors this year will be Ant & Dec, while Jeremy Clarkson, Chris Evans, Frankie Boyle and Peter Kay will also be in the top ten,” Tom Weldon, deputy chief executive of Penguin UK, told reporters this week.

Although the public appetite for celebrity biographies is far from sated, the literary world regularly bemoans the proliferation of such volumes. Speaking to the Crime Thriller Awards this year, Lynda La Plante pressured publishers to “stop spending your millions on this tripe… on these reality TV writers who are her for their 15 minutes of fame”.

How much notice they’ll take of her remains to be seen as according to The Bookseller magazine, sales of Martin Amis novels last year totalled £200,000 – compared to £1.7 million for Alan Titchmarsh.

However, publication of Carol Vorderman’s autobiography has been postponed, as have the memoirs of Russell Brand and Simon Pegg. Some reports have suggested Wayne Rooney’s £5 million, five-volume deal for his life story may hang in the balance.

“There aren’t as many celebrity books this year as there have been in previous years,” says Bookends’ Gemma Kenward.

“And if some of them diminish in the public affection, it definitely affects sales. We haven’t sold as many Katie Price books lately and last year, we only sold two copies of Jonathan Ross’ book in December after all that stuff with Russell Brand which is surprising as Jonathan Ross was a really popular person in the public eye before that.”

Spending on books in other areas has actually increased, says Gemma.

“Times are tight but we have sold far more craft books and books about things to do at home, quiz books, art books, that kind of thing.”

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