#BookReview My Amy: The Life We Shared by Tyler James @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TylerJames #MyAmy Title: My Amy: The Life We Shared

Author: Tyler James

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Aug. 17, 2021

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 336

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Written with a searing honesty and published for the tenth anniversary of Amy Winehouse’s death, My Amy is an evocative portrait of unbreakable lifelong friendship – and a devastating study into fame, addiction and self-sabotage.

Only one person knows what really happened to Amy, other than Amy herself. He is Tyler James, Amy’s best friend from the age of thirteen. They met at stage school as two insecure outsiders, formed an instant connection and lived together from their late teenage years right up until the day she died, aged just twenty-seven.

Tyler was there by her side through it all. From their carefree early years touring together to the creation of the multiple Grammy-winning Back To Black, which she wrote on their kitchen floor. From her volatile marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil through her escalating addictions, self-harm and eating disorders as the toxic nature of fame warped Amy’s reality. For the last three years of her life, Tyler was with her every day when she’d beaten drugs and was close to beating alcoholism too. He also knew better than anyone the real Amy Winehouse who the tabloid-reading public rarely saw – the hilarious, uncompromising force-of-nature busy taking care of everyone else.

We all think we know what happened to Amy Winehouse, but we don’t. This definitive insider’s story tells us all, finally, the truth.


Review:

Raw, genuine, and affecting!

My Amy: The Life We Shared is a heart-wrenching, touching memoir that takes you into the life of Tyler James and the special, somewhat dependent relationship between his best friend, famous jazz singer, Amy Winehouse and himself from the moment they met in their early teens at the Sylvia Young Theatre School until her tragic death in 2011.

The prose is emotional and sincere. And the novel is a poignant tale of one men’s personal struggles and experiences loving, supporting, and caring for an extremely talented friend tortured by demons and lost in a demanding world that took her soul and freedom, and left her struggling to cope in a toxic environment rife with drugs, addiction, eating disorders, public scrutiny, alcohol abuse, and parasitic relationships.

Overall, My Amy: The Life We Shared is a candid, heartfelt, informative tale by James that reminds us that loving someone means loving them for the good, the bad, and the ugly, and highlights that fame is not always fortunate, and sometimes being surrounded by many can actually be the loneliest existence of all.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 
 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Tyler James

Tyler James grew up in the East End of London and met Amy Winehouse at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. He became a singer/songwriter and was signed to Island Records in 2003. By early 2009, after many chaotic years for both himself and Amy, he successfully overcame severe addiction problems of his own. Today, he lives and farms in Ireland, having swapped gigging for lambing. My Amy is his first book.

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