A Single Step

by Pamela Cockerill, Heather Mills McCartney, Heather Mills

Heather Mills was already a recognized leading land mine activist and a successful model and businesswoman when she and Paul McCartney fell in loveand made headlines all over the world. Her story is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446531650
• ISBN13: 9780446531658
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

One Wonders . . .

Not quite what I expected, but interesting. HM wrote this book just before her marriage to Sir Paul, so there is very little in it about their relationship. Pity. But she tells a compelling story in her own right, from her childhood with an abusive father and bolter mother up through having her leg torn off in a traffic accident, then on again to her being a crusader to distribute prosthetic limbs and ban land mines. (Oh, and she was also a model.) Perhaps a bit of "St. Heather" going on? But her childhood was Dickensian and she lost a pregnancy and she had horrible relationships with all the primary men in her life, including father and stepfather and even perhaps brother plus lovers, and she was for a time homeless and living under bridges. She comes right out at one point and says that she craves money for security. She portrays Paul as a romantic suitor, not at all pushing the status symbols he was entitled to. Had he read her book and fathomed its implications (men, $, and pregnancy), I doubt he would have married her.

I Once Called This Book "Inspiring". Now I'd Call It A Fiction.

Revised: 11-06. Actually forget almost everything I wrote down there. We now know Heather Mills probably made her entire life story up. Might her autobiography be more honest if it began with a preface that said, "Why I am a gold digger..."? For posterity, here is what I said in 2005 about "A Single Step" back before I found out what Heather truly is: Heather Mills McCartney comes through these pages as a delightfully tough, caring woman, who has endured more in her still-young lifetime than any human should have to bear. I read along glued to each page as she took me from her difficult childhood in a working class home, through an adolescence that included homelessness and brushes with the law, up through the horrific motorcycle accident in which she lost her leg. After following her through of all of that, I was delighted when her story took its upswing and she met and later married the great love of her life, Paul McCartney. I felt like cheering for Heather! Good karma had come home to roost at last! Something I also admire about this remarkable woman is that she does not use the space of this (auto)biography as an exercise in vanity, she makes full use of her newfound place in the public eye to campaign for such worthy causes as a global ban on land mines, and also to inform about the evils of international child labor, which forces Third World children as young as three into cruel employment in sweat shops and agicultural concerns. I see in Heather Mills McCartney not just a fine woman I now admire very much, but the makings of one of the great humanitarians of our time. (11-06: Wow, was I ever wrong!)

A Surprisingly Good Read

This book has been out for at least three years, but its price is what drew me to it! I like biographies and will give almost anyone's a chance. The beginning chapters, describing her childhood, were written in a very amateurish style, but I found them interesting reading nonetheless. Oddly, the writing style improved quite a bit in the middle of the book and I could not put it down. Toward the end of the book, my interest waned, but I kept at it. I do not regret it. I know the rags to riches story has been told a million times, but I never get sick of it. Like the song by Paul McCartney says people seem to be sick of those silly love songs, but it just isn't so. I also don't think many of us will tire of stories like Heather's story. The person she became was amazing after being raised in a home with a violent, narcissistic father and a mother who left her three children with that father so she herself could escape her bad marriage. Heather Mills has guts and determination and was painfully honest about her failings too. I am not sure where a previous rater found her criticizing Paul McCarney for being uncompromising. I must have missed that part. She spoke of Paul, Linda and their children with great respect. It changed the opinion I had of her from what I read in the media. Surprisingly, I would recommend this book.

A Great Inspiration

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. "Albert Schweitzer" This book has so many wonderful lessons to share. I wish that my Mother, who lost her leg 17 years before her death could have lived to read it. Words can not express how much healing I got from this book.

Quite a life

I found the premise for this book interesting: Heather Mills McCartney wanted to "set the record straight" once and for all, dispel any and all rumors about her past. It's a ripe one, all right. In just 33 years, she has lived more than one lifetime's worth of travail, and I personally admire her. Frankly, I think she is the perfect match for Paul McCartney at this stage of his life, and I hope they will be happy together. Hopefully, the press and paparazzi will leave them alone (fat chance...) and they can have some peace and quiet, which she most definitely needs after all she has endured. A pretty good read overall.