I have just come back from a blissful week in Tunisia, lying around the pool reading books, sipping the odd cold beer along
the way, just to keep cool you understand. One of the books I read was Rags to Ritchie by Shane Ritchie (with Sue Crawford). And I’m surprised to admit it was a dam good read!
Previous thoughts about Shane.
I didn’t have any strong feelings about his career prior to the UK TV show Eastenders where I think he does a superb job as Alfie Moon. I always considered Shane to be a slightly cheesy light entertainer, Mr Quiz show, every ones mate, always there with a witty quip or a sharp answer. I knew he had been a Bluecoat at the
Holiday Camp Pontins and I knew he was in Grease and therefore must be able to sing and dance a bit but what came across as I got stuck in to this book is that he is
obviously a consummate professional who has paid his dues on the Club Scene. He has had his fair share of nights where he has ‘died’ on stage and learnt from it, perfecting his craft to the extent he can take a lead role in a west end musical means he must be an exceptionally dedicated and talented individual. Before I read the book I didn’t really appreciate what that really meant.
Shane’s Life
In the book Shane talks about his poor upbringing, speaking candidly about the fact that he had a somewhat distant relationship with his father and brother and at times walked the fine line of the law. His love for his mother shines through and though at times he has been a lousy Husband/Boyfriend, in fact a generally unfaithful ratbag of the highest order, he somehow comes across as a well balanced person, a good father and a loyal friend.
The experience Shane had in the Pontins period of his life is very well written and one that he obviously got a great deal of pleasure from. The text is descriptive and the various holiday camps of his career come alive in your imagination in an almost tangible way. This is where I feel he learnt his craft, along with fine tuning his blagging skills which were already coming along nicely as he managed to convince Pontins he was two years older than he actually was.
He speaks very openly about the mess he made of his marriage to Coleen Nolan and his simultaneous/subsequent relationship with Claire, a dancer in the Grease show during it's Manchester run. One of the things that struck me about this chapter of his life is the way he has since dealt with the mistakes he has made. I admire him enormously for the amount of dignity and respect he obviously has for his former wife and mother of his children and they have all worked together to ensure the Children suffer as little as possible. I hope if it ever happens to me I can be as adult about things, all credit to those involved. I seem to remember at the time that Shane was portrayed quite badly by Colleen during her stint on ‘This Morning’ (Understandably so).
Shane’s financial problems are also well documented in the book and again he seems to have learnt his lessons the hard way.
The Verdict
This is a very easy book to read. I feel I got to know Shane and came to like him enormously, which I suppose I did already due in no small part to his superb portrayal of the Alfie Moon character in Eastenders. I don’t know how much help Sue Crawford gave him in writing this book but I always felt that it was his personality and words coming out which means ultimately that Ms Crawford did a great job.
I paid ¢3.75 in Tesco for the paperback version of this book in June 2004, and at the time of writing it’s available on Amazon for as little as 99p. Very good value for money indeed.
To conclude, this was a hugely entertaining book, easy to follow and eminently suitable for holiday reading material.
The ISBN number is 1-84357-099-8