- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition edition (18 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316857777
- ISBN-13: 978-0316857772
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 479,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Anne Robinson's most recent public persona--the hardened battleaxe of television's The Weakest Link--is but a very small part of this quizmistress; Memoirs Of An Unfit Mother will most likely change your perceptions of the star. This book is a good read, but not a comfortable one. It's interesting: a saga-style across-the-generations tale of the Robinson clan. Of course, as a long-standing journalist before she hit the TV big time, Robinson's written style ensures the pages turn quickly. Memoirs of An Unfit Mother reads like a deposition for the defence of Anne Robinson, by Anne Robinson. It's hard to tell how many prospective readers know much of her life before the consumer TV programme Watchdog, so the author's decision to lay down hard facts about her alcoholism, the demise of a troubled marriage, blind ambition and the subsequent loss of custodial rights to her daughter Emma is risky.
Certainly, there have been hard lessons learnt. Which reader cannot sympathise with the empty dread a mother must feel when a child is taken away? The desperate loneliness? The horror of being judged as a failed parent? Sad things have certainly happened. But Robinson¹s reasoning--that the same would not happen to a hard-drinking workaholic man--only half helps her case for public support. It is difficult to empathise with someone who equates herself with Margaret Thatcher at every turn since the 1970s. Someone who recognises greed as a good point. And someone who seems to take great pride in telling how her husband was derided by colleagues when she became his boss. Readers who remember "Auntie Annie" from Watchdog may be shocked by her--perhaps self-protectively--hardened heart. Those who believe the hype for TV's Mrs Nasty are also mistaken--there aren't many intended wrongs here. Instead, Anne Robinson has laid herself bare, in an appeal to public opinion that she's been wronged by the system. Maybe she has. All in all, Memoirs of an Unfit Mother is worth reading, and worth learning from. It's all down here in black and white, but it is the grey areas in between which hold the intrigue. --Helen Lamont
Review
A cracking, unsentimental good read..love her or loathe her, Robinson has produced a book that revolutionises the celebrity autobiography (THE OBSERVER )
Devastating, original, self-lacerating, glittering with anger and thwarted maternal love...the book, like Robinson herself, is a combustable mixture of ferocity and vulnerability (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Robinson is no heroine- at least of all in her own eyes...but she is admirable. (THE SPECTATOR )
It's a brilliant read, and a lesson to would-be-showbiz blog writers. (DAILY MAIL )
Devastating, original, self-lacerating, glittering with anger and thwarted maternal love...the book, like Robinson herself, is a combustable mixture of ferocity and vulnerability (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Robinson is no heroine- at least of all in her own eyes...but she is admirable. (THE SPECTATOR )
It's a brilliant read, and a lesson to would-be-showbiz blog writers. (DAILY MAIL )
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Fifteen years after a mother has left the earth there is a grown-up daughter standing in a shop, saying petulantly to a saleswoman, 'I know it looks nice - but I don't wear purple.' Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Fifteen years after a mother has left the earth there is a grown-up daughter standing in a shop, saying petulantly to a saleswoman, 'I know it looks nice - but I don't wear purple.' Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have rarely read an autobiography which is as honest in its content as this. Notwithstanding the media hype, Anne Robinson's intellect and her sheer guts shine through. Her account of her alcoholism is so devoid of self-pity and so painfully accurate that it almost physically hurts to read it. I left the book feeling grateful and privileged to have had an insight into the personality of someone who in no way is, or ever was, an unfit mother. The book also gives a brilliant insight into the hypocrisy and sexism which pervaded British society in the 60s and70s. I highly recommend this book.
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
brilliant read from start to finish. Looking at her on the Weakest Link you wouldn't think she had been through so much. It does show though that you have to get up a get on with it, when you are knocked down again and again. I have nothing but admiration for her after reading this book.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It takes a specially courageous person to admit to weaknesses; few have examined past weaknesses with the sort of honesty Anne Robinson shows in this book. Her battle against alcohol addiction gives an ungilded account of her powerlessness in the face of vodka and her final strength in rescuing herself from her self-made black hole. But also her fight against prevalent attitudes to women at the time she was taking her first steps in journalism shows how determination can overcome social prejudice. Her book does not reveal her as perfect; it reveals her as talented, strong but vulnerable, decisive yet indecisive, and above all honest. Anybody whose perception of Robinson is based on the dominatrix she plays in The Weakest Link may be in for a shock. Utterly compelling and utterly honest.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
I Read It To The End!
I purchased this book after knowing of Anne Robinson's TV presence for many years, most recently on a book programme for BBC2, which I considered to be well thought-out and well... Read more
Published 14 months ago by mykonos
Honest and brave
Anne Robinson was the weakest link in her own life matters for a very long time.
Her autobiography, which I've only read recently and is probably a bit outdated by now,... Read more
Her autobiography, which I've only read recently and is probably a bit outdated by now,... Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2008 by I LOVE BOOKS
Memoirs of A Black-garbed Nemesis
In this autobiography, Anne Robinson traces her life from early days in the Liverpool area (ultimate origins "Irish peasant", she says; mother a large-scale black market operative... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2007 by Ian Millard
Memoirs of an unift mother
I didn't like Anne Robinson very much but was intrigued by why she lost custody of her daughter. My opinion of her has soared as she has fought to overcome tremendous obstacles in... Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2004 by M Donnelly
Don’t miss out on this book, it is an exceptional read!
This is an astounding story of the rise and fall and the resurgence of a British celebrity told with candour and humility. Read more
Published on 23 Jan 2004 by Sam Hatti
A must read life story
I enjoyed every page of this book. People don't generally ask for highs and lows on the scale covered in this book, and I'm sure the author didn't set out to reach many of them. Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2004
Very honest
Memoirs of an Unfit Mother is one of the most honest autobiographies ever written. Anne Robinson makes no bones about her previous life, she lays it all bare for the world to see. Read more
Published on 27 April 2003 by O. Doyle
Anne looks back at herself with realism and wit
Anne has written with a great deal of humility about her past. It is a fantastic read and explains an awful lot about the character she is today. Read more
Published on 2 April 2003 by Casey
Well recommended!
I used to hate Anne Robinson when she presented Watchdog, primarily because I was working for British Gas at the time and she was then slating the company off like no other! Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2002 by rob51166@aol.com
Very enjoyable read!
Living in the U.S., I only knew Anne from watching the Weakest Link, and reading the book, was glad to see her talents as a writer and journalist shine through. Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2002 by dewey@bcpl.net
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