Revealing a woman proud of her Jewishness, grateful for the freedoms offered by Britain, angered by injustice and with a love of the simple things of life, this autobiography underlines that, whatever one might think of Esther Rantzen, her heart is definitely in the right place.

Review

So you think you know BBC television's Esther Rantzen? The familiar, forthright tone of Esther: the Autobiography, easily matches the author's TV persona...but you can be sure there are also surprises in store. Born and raised in North London, Esther led a typical middle-class existence for most of her younger life. Her sphere of experience, although small and often blinkered by lifelong good fortune, is actually very revealing. The real interest here lies perhaps less with the author and more with her candid acceptance of the social systems she has lived through. Certainly, on one level at least, this autobiography functions well as a sociological text--looking at the institutionalised class system within higher education and the BBC (perhaps remarkable, since the book is published by the BBC itself). Rantzen's tales of collegiate life are peppered with the names of student chums who rode the conveyor belt from Oxbridge straight to top jobs in broadcasting ("Peter Snow was always lovely", and "I slept in Melvyn Bragg's bed"--indeed.) Once inside Broadcasting House, Rantzen regularly questioned the patriarchal atmosphere within--but then had no qualms about giving jobs to the "old" boys instead.

Of course there is also a more human element here. Its subject comes across as well intentioned and, although perhaps not a great visionary, she seems blessed with a confident talent to communicate and promote herself and her ideas. It was this "let's do it!" no-nonsense bulldozer effect that helped Esther Rantzen host 21 years of the TV show That's Life! and go on to work benevolently with Childline and various other good causes. There was--as in most lives--a certain amount of scandal to contend with. Esther married her late husband Desmond Wilcox (who died in September 2000, just before this autobiography was completed) after beginning her relationship with him as the mistress to a married man--here she neither shirks blame nor responsibility. It is the throwaway lines--an admission of an affair with the late Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn, for example, which really elicit some sharp intakes of breath. Away from her TV persona, the final passages of "Esther: the Autobiography" are the work of someone who has been touched by great pain and is trying--with difficulty--to come out the other side. Until this point, perhaps, this was the autobiography of a high-achieving woman. Wilcox's death transforms it instead into the work of a real woman--who has achieved.--Helen Lamont

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