Andrew Ridgeley - 'Wham! George & Me'

Andrew Ridgeley was in Wham! with George Michael in the early 1980s, and wrote 'Wham! George & Me' to share his memories of the time with his friend, with whom he had been close to since around 1975, when George Michael, then Georgios Panayiotou) joined his school in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

I completely flew through this book; Wham! is a very guilty pleasure of mine - guilty, I'm not sure why - but it was fascinating. This book is as close to the truth of what really happened in Wham! as anybody will ever get as George Michael is no longer with us. He died on 25th December 2016. 

What I really liked about Andrew Ridgeley's book was the focus on the musical influences of Wham!, George Michael and Andrew himself. It is something that I found was incredibly in depth and interesting, and something which some other autobiographies which I have read do not focus on. It was a welcome change, and in my opinion, made 'Wham! George & Me' stand out from other books which I have read.

The book was heartbreaking in places, particularly as Ridgeley came to the end of Wham!'s life and speaks about how he saw George Michael blossoming as a solo artist when Ridgeley himself knew that that was not what he was going to do. It was heartwrenching because there is obviously such a deep love and respect between George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, and that bond still exists towards George Michael, (referred to often as 'Yog', a childhood nickname, by Ridgeley), despite his friend's death. The book is a beautiful tribute to a lost friend, a brother, as Andrew Ridgeley sometimes calls him. The vast array of photos which are included in the book, both glossy coloured and black and white, show the deep bond that existed between the two of them, and it is beautiful.