Cilla Black - 'What's It All About?'

Cilla Black will forever be known as one of the world's best - and most loved - entertainers. She died in 2015 at her home in Portugal. In 2003, she released her autobiography, entitled What's It All About? This title came from her 1966 song 'Alfie', which provided her and also Dionne Warwick with a hit. 'Alfie' was written by Burt Bacharach.

I really enjoyed Cilla's autobiography, finding it a really close up and very personal retelling of her life. It seems that she put her whole life into just under 400 pages.

The photos included were beautiful, and well picked to chronicle her best outfits and most important parts of Cilla's life. In addition, the use of the typical Scouse terms; eg. 'fellers', and 'ai ya' really reminded me of the kind of background which she had, and how Cilla stayed true to it for her entire life.

Yes, she made it big, but she still spoke with a Scouse accent and maintained her Liverpool sense of humour.

This book is truly the best for fans of Cilla, and for people who want to understand somebody who helped put Liverpool on the map.

I particularly enjoyed reading about Cilla's early days in the Cavern and her time with The Beatles as I work at the Cavern and have an absolute obsession with the band. I learned a lot from her book, and I intend to use some of her words the next time a tourist asks me if there is a cloakroom, or something similar!

(For reference, the Cavern no longer has a cloakroom - I always say this is because Cilla's not there to mind it anymore!)

Additionally, the way in which Cilla describes the love and respect which she had for husband Bobby Willis - and that which she had for her - was heartbreaking. The way in which she wrote about his death actually brought tears to my eyes, and seemed almost too personal to be reading about. I think she maybe should have kept some of her feelings to herself - they are, surely, too deep to share with the world.

But overall, Cilla achieved so much during her life that it was impossible not to enjoy this book, and also to appreciate Cilla's sense of humour. It really made the book all the more easily digestible because there was a joke or a tease around every corner, and I got through it in no time.