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Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A tale of Catherine Cookson-esque tragedy and Northern grit, Pauline Prescott's life story will shock and amaze.
A mother and a faithful friend, Pauline is not your typical politician's wife. She is immensely proud of her role as a housewife and over the near-forty years she has been in the public eye she has remained discreet, dignified and deeply loyal.
The daughter of a bricklayer, who died when she was young, Pauline came from humble backgrounds. At 15 she found herself pregnant by a married US serviceman. Resisting all attempts to give her son up for adoption, she struggled on for three years, until she was finally persuaded it was for his own good. She never expected to see him again.
She trained as a hairdresser and got a good job at a salon in Chester. Soon afterwards she met John, a dashing waiter who whisked her off her feet and married her. John's dreams of becoming a union activist meant that he spent the next eight years in university. It was Pauline's wages that paid for everything. She never complained.
John quickly rose through the ranks and suddenly, it seemed, he was the Deputy Prime Minister. Pauline went almost overnight from a Hull hairdresser to a key participant at political events. Always immaculate, she quickly became known for her fashion, style and stunning hats.
But Pauline's world was turned upside down when, more than forty years after she put her son up for adoption, John received a call to say the press had tracked him down. The decision to give up her son had been heart-rending. All these years later, Pauline was overjoyed to be reunited with the child she had pined for for so long, finally getting the happy ending she had dreamed of for years.
Throughout John's career, Pauline has had to cope with the lack of privacy his position has afforded their family. Through it all she has emerged a figure of admiration.
Loyal, sharp, good humoured and articulate, Pauline has entranced the nation. Now tells us her story in her own words. Warm, moving and at times painfully sad, Pauline's autobiography is an honest account of a fascinating life.
About the Author
Pauline lives on the outskirts of Hull, not far from where she grew up, and where her husband John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, has been a Labour MP since the 1970s. Born in 1940, and likened to the glamorous Elizabeth Taylor, she trained as a hairdresser and it was her wages that supported them during John's eight years of university and growing political ambition. She is her husband's biggest champion.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A warm and tender memoir of a woman whose story is touching and, in many places heart-rending, without being overly sugary and mawkish.
The book takes us from 1950s black and white kitchen sink grimness - Liz Taylor lookalike Pauline, left in the lurch by a US serviceman, bullied into giving up the baby boy she can't afford to raise - to today - the wealthy, glamorous survivor, reunited with her son and looking forward to spending her dotage as the new Christine Hamilton.
Along the way, she meets an uppity ship's waiter union rep whose proposal - in a train loo - she mystifyingly accepts. John devotes his time and energy to harmonious industrial relations in that sweet natured way of his; ending up blacklisted by three shipping lines, it is Pauline who is left to cope when there's little money coming in. Her hairdressing pay allows him to go to University, the springboard to a political career that was only slightly less embarrassing than watching your mother lapdance.
Pauline couldn't care less about John's political life, judging Margaret Thatcher more by her (smart) appearance than her politics. She stands by her man through thick and thin and is naturally hurt when this loyalty is rewarded by shamelessly sordid infidelity. The book doesn't provide much insight into her reasoning, other than it allows Pauline to 'get away with murder now'. She even gets - notoriously at taxpayers' expense - a new downstairs loo out of the affair, and you can't really argue with that.
Anyone looking for a more tender and human side to John Prescott will need to look elsewhere - the public image of a seething and sulky bully is entirely accurate, it seems. When he's not stuffing his face, he's throwing it all up, screaming because he can't find the remote control, giving Pauline the silent treatment or exploding if she dares interrupt him. 'A bit of a bully' - Pauline's phrase - is putting it mildly. Reading this made me realise that maybe John did achieve something in his political career after all - he gave this gracious and likeable woman a well deserved bit of peace and quiet. I hope this book - touching, warm, funny and uplifting as it is - gets thrown at him regularly.
The book takes us from 1950s black and white kitchen sink grimness - Liz Taylor lookalike Pauline, left in the lurch by a US serviceman, bullied into giving up the baby boy she can't afford to raise - to today - the wealthy, glamorous survivor, reunited with her son and looking forward to spending her dotage as the new Christine Hamilton.
Along the way, she meets an uppity ship's waiter union rep whose proposal - in a train loo - she mystifyingly accepts. John devotes his time and energy to harmonious industrial relations in that sweet natured way of his; ending up blacklisted by three shipping lines, it is Pauline who is left to cope when there's little money coming in. Her hairdressing pay allows him to go to University, the springboard to a political career that was only slightly less embarrassing than watching your mother lapdance.
Pauline couldn't care less about John's political life, judging Margaret Thatcher more by her (smart) appearance than her politics. She stands by her man through thick and thin and is naturally hurt when this loyalty is rewarded by shamelessly sordid infidelity. The book doesn't provide much insight into her reasoning, other than it allows Pauline to 'get away with murder now'. She even gets - notoriously at taxpayers' expense - a new downstairs loo out of the affair, and you can't really argue with that.
Anyone looking for a more tender and human side to John Prescott will need to look elsewhere - the public image of a seething and sulky bully is entirely accurate, it seems. When he's not stuffing his face, he's throwing it all up, screaming because he can't find the remote control, giving Pauline the silent treatment or exploding if she dares interrupt him. 'A bit of a bully' - Pauline's phrase - is putting it mildly. Reading this made me realise that maybe John did achieve something in his political career after all - he gave this gracious and likeable woman a well deserved bit of peace and quiet. I hope this book - touching, warm, funny and uplifting as it is - gets thrown at him regularly.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I rarely leave reviews but I read alot, and this is the best book Ive read in ages. It has all about her life with John Prescott, the child she had adopted and his affair and how it affected her.
I had it for Mothers day and read it in 4 days as I couldnt put it down. 5/5 for this book
I had it for Mothers day and read it in 4 days as I couldnt put it down. 5/5 for this book
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I really enjoyed this book, about a very nice lady. Mrs P comes across as a lovely, humble person and in the process I have also gained a more positive insight about her rather less loveable husband!
Her description of what it cost her to give up her baby son followed by their reunion many years later was really sweet, and I found it very emotional in fact.
It's very refreshing these days to come across a woman who is genuinely happy and fulfilled in being a 'traditional wife'. So I am a real Pauline fan, and feel very defensive of her when the media criticise her for her looks or hairstyle, or for deciding to continue to 'stand by her man' (which is more than most of us would have done). You go for it Pauline, I'm sure you've gained a new generation of fans!
Her description of what it cost her to give up her baby son followed by their reunion many years later was really sweet, and I found it very emotional in fact.
It's very refreshing these days to come across a woman who is genuinely happy and fulfilled in being a 'traditional wife'. So I am a real Pauline fan, and feel very defensive of her when the media criticise her for her looks or hairstyle, or for deciding to continue to 'stand by her man' (which is more than most of us would have done). You go for it Pauline, I'm sure you've gained a new generation of fans!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Easy reading
I like the style and easy reading of a very human story. It sounded truthful and real. What a lady !
Published 9 months ago by Mrs. Jean K. Fraser
Rivetting
I found this book riveting, and had trouble putting it down, reading it in just 2 days! I really warmed to Pauline, and I'd love to read John's book now to hear it from his side.
Published 11 months ago by Ginger
Pauline is strong
This is an interesting book on the other side of political life when a wife who did not ask for public life does the best she can to support her husband and raise a family to the... Read more
Published on 23 April 2010 by B. G. Denison
Utter drivel
Smile Though Your Heart is BreakingWritten in what I would imagine to be Mills and Boon prose. If the writer or editor was hoping to give the impression of what a sad person... Read more
Published on 5 April 2010 by Hugh Cruttwell
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