Book review: The Celeb Diaries by Mark Frith
The Celeb Diaries, by Mark Frith
Former Heat editor Mark Frith’s memoir of ten years at the helm of the UK’s most popular gossip rag is as full of juicy celebrity titbits as you’d hope, from the inner workings of brand Beckham (pre and post Loos-gate), to Jonathan Ross’s diva strops, right up to the car crash that is la Winehouse, but more than that, it’s about how the magazine we all love to hate rose like Frankenstein from a dull underperforming men’s weekly into a flashy trashy megatron of the celebrity market.
The heart of the story is the close knit team surrounding Frith who, as well as revelling in the scandal and having a great laugh at the poor, misguided celebrities’ expense, dedicate a lot of themselves to giving us the freshest gossip and funniest pictorials week after week. From pulling all nighters to ensure their Big Brother Final special covers every nook and cranny of the house, to dedicating their weekends to infiltrating Berkshire mansions in the hope of capturing a Girls Aloud wedding, and even befriending Jade Goody’s mum, there’s nothing these guys and girls won’t do to get the story.
It’s a fascinating account which, much like Piers Morgan’s The Insider provides a warning to any writers foolhardy enough to want to infiltrate the celebrity/tabloid market. For the duration of his ten year captaincy of the good ship Heat, Frith’s life was never entirely his own. He tells of holidays spent scouring newsagents for news of the latest scandal, sleepless nights as the threat of being sued and fired loomed over him , the constant scrabble for sales in a fickle market… It all adds up to one big pain in the bum for anyone not fully invested in the job.
While it is an entertaining read that will certainly satisfy the cravings of Heat fans looking for insider information, Frith’s story illustrates a key point: in order succeed in the business, you have to be prepared to shun the real world to a degree and survive on a diet of celebrities for breakfast, lunch and dinner – which is a lot harder than it sounds.
The Celeb Diaries: The Sensational Inside Story of the Celebrity Decade
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