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Catch a Fire: The Autobiography
by
Melanie B.
In this extraordinary autobiography of "Scary" Spice, Melanie Brown, she covers it all—the council estate childhood, the formation of the Spice Girls, the early months being groomed for stardom, the subsequent global domination, Geri's departure, the marriage and divorce to Jimmy Gulzar, the birth of Phoenix Chi, the solo career, and the leap into TV presenting. Not bad fo
...more
Paperback
,
416 pages
Published
July 1st 2003
by Headline Book Publishing
(first published 2002)
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Community Reviews
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187)
A few years ago, maybe 3 or 4?, I read the autobiography of Victoria Beckham and Geri Halliwell's 2 books.Ii bought them all from ebay, cheap, and could not get a hold of Mel B's book at the time. After stumbling across a documentary on the Spice Girls on youtube in January I decided to try and find Mel's book. I have no idea how I didn't find a copy last time cause there where so many copies up for grabs on ebay this time around.
Sporty and Ginger had always been my favorite Spice Girls but thi ...more
Sporty and Ginger had always been my favorite Spice Girls but thi ...more
Mel B's book was definitely more revealing than Geri and Victoria's autobiographies. I learned so much more about the year between forming the group and becoming famous.
I really enjoyed reading her diary entries. It's crazy how much those girls traveled - in October 1997, they were in France, Spain, France again, Turkey for their first live show, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Japan, and England! I can imagine how exhausting that could become!
I did find a few contradictions in the book..for examp ...more
I really enjoyed reading her diary entries. It's crazy how much those girls traveled - in October 1997, they were in France, Spain, France again, Turkey for their first live show, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Japan, and England! I can imagine how exhausting that could become!
I did find a few contradictions in the book..for examp ...more
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Probably the most revealing and sensational of the Spice Girls' autobiographies, this is thoroughly in keeping with Mel's personality. It concentrates more on her private life than the other girls' books, with her pop career often taking a back seat to personal issues. The bits about her bizarre marriage to Jimmy Gulzar are particularly interesting to read.
How I Came To Read This Book: After reading Geri Halliwell's first autobiography in one day this year, I felt like picking up the final Spice biography out there (Mel C & Emma...can't wait to read yours!)
The Plot: Mel B's 500+ page biography covers her life from babyhood to motherhood, and how she went from a girl just interesting in entertaining to part of one of the greatest girl groups of all time. The bulk of the book thankfully deals with her life as a Spice Girl, with just the first 15 ...more
The Plot: Mel B's 500+ page biography covers her life from babyhood to motherhood, and how she went from a girl just interesting in entertaining to part of one of the greatest girl groups of all time. The bulk of the book thankfully deals with her life as a Spice Girl, with just the first 15 ...more
Melaine B has always been my favorite Spice Girl and I was so happy to be able to read about her life. The book talks of her early life quite a bit, I don't think it focuses on the Spice Girls as much Geri's and Victoria's books do, that is okay though. I really enjoyed reading about her early life, her mom's family sounds a bit crazy I can tell you that.
I thought this book was wonderful though, well-written. She has done so much in her life so far and it is really amazing to read about. It's sa ...more
I thought this book was wonderful though, well-written. She has done so much in her life so far and it is really amazing to read about. It's sa ...more
A fun read, especially as a teenager. A lot of insight into Melanie's mind and you can't put it down! It get's a bit confusing towards the end of the book.
Oct 08, 2007
Adrian
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who are interested in autobiographies
I find this book to be interesting...yes, i have also read Vic's and Geri's...i enjoy Mel's because of the way she write it...she is quite a good writer...or try to be one anyway...she is a dramatic person and manages to showcase that in her writing. She was a normal person...well we all are, aren't we...DUH!! But what made her successful was her diligence, hard work, and belief in herself. She also know her aims...she portrays herself well here...as careless, fun, risky, outrageous, amusing, an
...more
Being a huge spice girl fan and being from west Yorkshire this sounded like the book for me. I enjoyed this book and particularly enjoyed the bits about the spice girls and their life together and how crazy things became.
After reading this, I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised at just how normal the girls behind the Spice Girls really are. Sure, they became quite famous, but when you get right down to it, they're just normal people who got thrown into that. Now, I'm not saying that there weren't a few times when I just wanted to roll my eyes at some of the things Melanie talks about in the book, but I just chalk that up to her being a BIT more outrageous than me.
It was nice to read yet another viewpoint of the Spice Girls phenomenon, as I'd already read both of Geri's book, and Victoria's. I was interested in her marriage to Jimmy Gulzar although I felt like some details were left out. The book was a little overly long and spent too much time (in my opinion) on her pre-Spice days, but overall it was a good read.
I did enjoy this book, a very honest insight into scary spices life. Could do with less about realationships in it, and more about the girls friendship. The diary forms got quite irritating, however mel does show her vunerable side in this book, a sight rarely seen before.
I already read Geri Halliwell's If Only and For the Record and more recently read Victoria Beckham's Learning to Fly. I have to say I enjoyed Melanie Brown's book the least of the Spice Girls. It was overly long; spent too much time on her pre-Spice years and then was much more vague during the Spice years and beyond. It was an OK read but I found myself skimming it more than reading it, especially near the end.
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