Paris Hilton: Life on the Edge

by Chas Newkey-Burden

The subject of intense media and public fascination, Paris Hilton is one of the most-discussed celebrities of her generation. From the teenage party girl who was "famous for being famous," she has blossomed into an actress, pop star, and successful businesswoman. Paris's story takes readers behind the scenes of the most exclusive fashions shows, premieres, and parties. This revealing portrait covers the strings of famous men she has dated, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. Her list of friends is just as star-studded, including Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and her The Simple Life costar Nicole Ritchie. Lifting the lid on the controversies that have plagued her life, the book tells for the first time the full story of the sex-tape saga and her 2007 imprisonment. Defying her critics, Paris emerged from jail with a fresh sense of perspective and renewed energy. Paris Life on the Edge offers unique insight into her complex character and shows that jail was the making and not the breaking of her.

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2007

About the author

Chas Newkey-Burden is a British journalist and author. His books include The Reduced History of Britain, Great Email Disasters and Not In My Name: A Compendium Of Modern Hypocrisy (co-written with Julie Burchill). He has also written unauthorised biographies of Simon Cowell, Paris Hilton, Amy Winehouse, Alexandra Burke and six official publications for Arsenal football club.

He has written for publications including The Guardian, Four Four Two, Total Football, Time Out, Attitude and The Big Issue; and internet sites including Ynetnews, The First Post and Guardian Blogs. A former Contributing Editor to Loaded magazine and former editor of the football website icons.com, where he was also Dennis Bergkamp's official biographer. Interviewees include David Beckham, Ricky Gervais, Frank Lampard, Rachel Stevens and James Bourne.

Newkey-Burden has discussed his books, football news and the Middle East on TV and radio shows including Sky News, CNN, BBC Breakfast News, The Today Programme on Radio 4, Five Live Breakfast, TalkSport, Capital Gold and BBC Radio London. He was featured on the BBC 2 documentary Cold War Kids, the Sky One show Celebrities On Heat and The Biography Channel and Fuse Television's documentaries on Amy Winehouse.

Newkey-Burden has a blog, entitled OyVaGoy, in which he describes himself as 'philosemitic' and posts opinions firmly in support of the state of Israel, and critical of those he perceives as being against Israel.
In July 2008, the British satirical magazine Private Eye reported that Newkey-Burden had posted positive reviews of his own books on the Amazon.co.uk online bookstore.

Reviews

[Dallas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodness, where shall I begin. The writing was all over the place, lots of errors, kept repeating certain lines, was a very annoying read. Had to scan through majority of it because I could care less with all the names mentioned. Couldn't wait to finish it. Hopefully the next biography I read of Paris Hilton will be better.

[Calle · Rating 1 out of 5]

In a biography about such a controversial public figure, you'd expect the author to try to give a balanced account of the person's life and public persona. Instead - and even though he gives several examples of Hilton's unprofessional behavior - Newkey-Burden has nothing but praise for Hilton. But the most annoying thing is that he mocks and ridicules anyone who said anything bad about his hero Hilton. The book reads like a badly written gossip column and most of the research seem to consist of Hilton's autobiography and gossip magazines. He obviously didn't do any own research or interviews with Hilton or anyone who knows her. This book was utterly pointless. At least it was a very quick read.