Lead Review
- Book: From My Heart
- Location: Blackpool
- Author: Linda Nolan
You remember the Nolan Sisters? Of course you do! Their big hit was “I’m in the Mood for Dancing”…
One might forget that each sister (and in fact there were eight siblings in the family, 6 sisters and 2 brothers) has an individual history, and this is Linda’s very personal story.
“From My Heart” is written in a personable and easy-to-read format, very much Linda’s own and, one imagines, largely unedited voice, and takes one through periods of her life full of all the glamour and glitz of a showbiz life, but also plumbs the depths of life behind the show curtain.
Linda started performing when she was tiny, both parents had musical talent. In search of work, the family decamped from Ireland to Blackpool, which remained Linda’s home, despite periods on the road. Here the family became known as “Blackpool’s own von Trapps” as in the early days songs from The Sound of Music became one of their star turns. The children/teenagers were introduced to the adult world very early on, and particularly when they had to relocate to London for lengthy periods.
As they became more well known and popular, they headed to South Africa and were revered in Japan (probably because they behaved themselves and didn’t lob guitars out of windows, quips Linda). Sugar sweet icons of the late 1970s and 1980s.
In her memoir, Linda charts the highs and lows of life in such a large family, the joint performances, the individual career paths. Hers was a life of highs, particularly when she got together with the love her life, Brian who became the girls’ manager for several years. But there were terrible lows, and the level of loss she endured in so many areas undoubtedly contributed to a prolonged bout of depression and suicidal thoughts.
A particularly memorable event was her stint in the Celebrity Big Brother House in 2014 when she was thrown together with her nemesis Jim Davidson, and it was their sparring (she came out of it as the ‘tough cookie’) that eventually led to her eviction. He evolved as the eventual winner. Rolf Harris had also crossed her path years before and his wandering hands hadn’t left her unscathed….
This is a very personal – very much in her own words – and at times heart rending account of a life lived in the fast lane, through life’s very hard knocks and then rising again on the crest of a wave. Appearances on the iconic Top of the Pops, touring with Frank Sinatra… you really can’t beat that!
In terms of TripFiction this is not a book you would choose for literary wanderlust – this is a book about people and life, but it does offer a great sense of later 20th Century Britain, when the country was at the forefront of popular music and dished up a froth of TV shows to entertain and titillate on a Saturday night. The Nolan Sisters were very much part of that scene.
This is a poignant, uplifting and at times very sad “ramble” (as Linda describes it herself) through Linda Nolan’s life. And a life well lived to date, through trauma, recurring illness, bankruptcy and more. You will take your hat off to “Lucky Linda’s” stoicism!
Check out the original blogpost where we chat to LInda
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