Babs' Book

Reads 'Like A Hollywood Novel'


By Estelle Lazarus


Barbara Windsor's autobiography, All of Me, reads like a Jackie Collins Hollywood novel, replete with gangsters, sex, abortions, boy toys, love trysts with co-stars, leading men and others. Only, it is not Hollywood.

Windsor's story begins when as Barbara Deeks she was born in the East End of London and raised in north London. The first several years of her life read like a typical EastEnders script. The Deeks family was working class and found it hard to make ends meet. Her mother had to work as her father was in the army, and not long after he returned from World War II her parents split up after a stormy marriage. Barbara writes of having a difficult relationship with her mother but she seemed to adore her father.

In spite of Barbara's upsetting childhood, she turned out to be a West End musical comedy star, a chanteuse, and a motion picture star with major celebrity status in the United Kingdom. She did appear on Broadway but did not seem to make it in the United States except for a cult following emanating from her frequent appearances in the U.K-produced Carry On... movies. Because of this fame, the poor little girl born in the East End received the prestigious and coveted MBE (Member of the British Empire) award from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace and appeared at the Queen Mother's 100th Birthday Parade last year (2000), at the age of 63. She married Scott Mitchell, the son of two old friends of hers, last year.

When Larry Jaffee asked if I would review this book, I immediately said yes. Then I was hesitant; I have never reviewed a book before. This one was going to prove more difficult because we had been childhood friends and what if I didn't like it. But then I thought she probably doesn't even remember me.

As some of the readers of Walford Gazette might remember, I wrote an open letter to Barbara via the Gazette several issues ago, outlining our friendship when we were young children in Stoke Newington/ Stamford Hill, London. We were friends for about four years until we were 11 years old.

Once I started to read the book I couldn't put it down; I read the whole 450 pages in one night-stopping only to have dinner. I especially liked the first part of the book as our lives were paralleled: both being born in Whitechapel in the East End of London, then being brought up in Stoke Newington/Stamford Hill in north London. Barbara describes all the places, especially, as she puts it, the "Jewish sector" where she loved to hang out and where I happened to live. This brought back fond memories of my home. So much for being afraid to review this book.

I found that many of the celebrities who Barbara befriended or sometimes just casually met included many I myself either worked for or met through business over the years.

I had even met her present husband Scott's Dad at the same place she first met him, on Stamford Hill outside the E&A Salt Beef (corned beef) Restaurant. Barbara also mentions another nearby local restaurant, Montegeno's, where she is introduced to Ron Hughes, her first husband.

Barbara tells of her conquests...meaning who she went to bed with throughout her 19-year marriage to gangster Ron Knight and her nine- or 10-year marriage to Stephen Holling.

I do not understand why she was so upset that her first husband cheated on her with one woman when she had so many lovers herself.

And I really do not understand how she did not realize that her husband was a gangster...how naïve can she be? Maybe she wasn't.

I thought at first that All of Me would mean nothing to EastEnders fans who subscribe to the Walford Gazette, as I found it fun reading about my neighbourhood and also some of the old people I knew. Then I realized that even if I had not known her as a child, as a fan myself, I would still love to read the book just to find out how Barbara Deeks Windsor (alias "Peggy Mitchell") ticks.

By the way, EastEnders fans who hate "spoilers" should not read the end of the book until the shows have caught up because Barbara lets the cat out of the bag.

I am now waiting to read the next instalment...Carry On All of Me!?




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