Wicked Whispers

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thoroughly enjoyable read - Rated
If you like to read about celebrity gossip then this is the book for you -I couldnt put it down, I have not laughed as much for ages - highly recommended !!

Fabulous, indiscreet gossip. - Rated
Jessica Callan was one of the first "3am girls" aka female gossip writers paid to infiltrate and report on celebrity shenanigans. This book is her write up of this era. No stone is left unturned and celebrities really are exposed as being polite and decent (Elton John, David Furnish, Pierce Brosnan) or rude and stuck up (Jude Law, Bruce Willis). There is a fascinating chapter about a lost weekend spent with Jordan who was then dating Dwight Yorke. Yorke emerges as an unpleasant character whilst Jordan, surprisingly, comes across as needy and insecure (a far cry from today's businesswoman persona). Callan takes no prisoners and the book itself is both scintillating and in places, laugh out loud hilarious (let's just say Teddy Sheringham's appearance really made me laugh).

Its also interesting to be on the journalist's side of the fence. Tabloid jouranlists get a very bad press but Jessica comes across as human and likeable with a conscience and integrity that are sometimes incompatible with the job of basically, stitching celebrities up in a national newspaper.

This book could be criticised for being "old news" since much of it ocurred in 2000- 2003, but its still really juicy to read about A-listers when they were starting out (when Posh Spice was just a Spice Girl and Jordan just a little known glamour model.

Personally, the only reason I didn't give this five stars was that the dialogue sounds really clunky and staged. For example, instead of just writing that Elton John books into hotels using a false name (which would be self explanatory) she tells her colleague "I'm sure he's booked in under some ridiculous pseudonym...like celebs do when they stay at hotels and don't want to be tracked down". I'm sure the reader can figure that one without the explanation! On another occasion, instead of saying it was hard to find a replacement on the team she says to Eva "We've had so many letters and emails and nobody's up to the job at all. If we don't hurry up I hate to think who Piers will pick". It may be just me but it sounded a bit Acorn Antiques to me. Its just a small niggle in an otherwise very enjoyable book. I couldn't put it down! Highly recommended.