Publisher's Synopsis
For 17 years Val Doonican had played and sung all over Ireland, Britain and Germany, in clubs, dance halls and theatres and it took just one major television show from the London Palladium in 1964 to turn him into a star and overnight success. His gentle voice and Irish humour endeared him to a massive audience of television viewers and his TV show ran for 25 years. Now, we have his complete life in a book which combines his previous two best selling autobiographies with new material bringing the story up-to-date, from early beginnings in a poor but close-knit family, Val paints a vivid, humorous and touching picture of his early years, from having to leave school because of his father’s sudden death. He describes how, on his first day, the boss handed him a hammer ‘with which I became remarkably adept, knocking inch nails into wooden boxes with such speed and accuracy that I would have made a worthy interlude on a game show’. Val talks about being discovered at the London Palladium, his rise to success and his unmistakable brand of entertainment and what it has meant to his millions of fans over the years. There are stories of the people he worked with, from Rolf Harris to James Galway, as well as the pitfalls of the job. The first time he topped the bill at the Palladium, Tommy Cooper forgot his name as he introduced him to a bewildered audience who were expecting Frankie Vaughan. Written with vivacity and humour Val Doonican: My Story My Life tells the story of the life and career of this remarkable entertainer.
