Robin mcgibbon biography

MOURNED: Robin with his wife Sue

FRIENDS and colleagues pay tributes to former Expressman and author Robin McGibbon, who died on 15 December , aged

TERRY MANNERS: Robin McGibbon knew all about life … especially the lives of other people. To me he will always be the storyteller of the famous and I hope he roams among the stars now as he roamed amongst them on Earth.

From wrestling with Hollywood icon Oliver Reed on the floor of a Seychelles hotel bar, to playing football with Tom Finney, being welcomed at Parkhurst and Broadmoor by the notorious Kray twins, and working with their older brother Charlie, he lived a colourful life with a relentless ability to pick himself up off the floor in the dark moments of life. Sadly, he has lost his last battle, aged

Robin was a walking storybook himself … telling how he burned his face in the Atlanta sun waiting to interview dancer Ginger Rogers who was starring in cabaret. She found him waiting in her dressing room and had to massage his face with suncream.

How Telly Savalas boasted to him that he once swam for his life to escape gangsters … but Robin was told later by a producer that the star couldn’t swim. How he had never seen someone drink so much beer in one night as singer Andy Williams; how he turned up for an arranged interview with Bridget Bardot at her home and she set her dogs on him; how star Gina Lollobrigida invited him to dinner when he missed his plane … only to find himself surrounded by dukes and earls in dinner jackets and bow ties, as he stood out in a powder blue suit. The stories were endless.

During his time with us, Robin would arrive in the Express newsroom where he worked as a news and features sub, always carrying a battered but expensive, and beautiful, burgundy leather briefcase with gold locks, that travelled all over the world with him. He used to joke that it held more secrets than Churchill’s bunker. A man he admired so much, that he listened to his recorded wartime speeches at home.

Rob&#;s first book was ‘New Kids on the Block &#; The Whole Story By Their Friends’, a biography of the America pop phenomenon. The book was co-written with his father, Robin, also a journalist, and self-published in March It became a worldwide sensation and reached No on the New York Times bestsellers list and remained on the WH Smith’s bestsellers in the UK for many months.

Rob and his father co-wrote three more books together during their brief working partnership: ‘Gazza!’, the first biography of England footballer Paul Gascoigne; ‘Phillip Schofield &#; The Whole Amazing Story’, which charted the career of the popular TV presenter; and ‘Simply Mick’, the definitive biography of Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall, which reached No.7 on the Sunday Times bestsellers in May

During the ’90s, Rob also wrote a series of successful biographies of the biggest pop stars of that decade, including Take That, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Westlife and, lastly, the foul-mouthed American rapper Eminem. Rob &#;retired&#; from the showbiz book groove in By then, pretty much like the people he had been writing about, Rob was a bit too old to be doing that job.

Since then, Rob has been developing numerous writing projects beyond celebrities. And continues to do so…with unrelenting frustration and pain. Call it second album syndrome.

Full bibliography for the celebtriy biographies from

By Rob McGibbon and Robin McGibbon

New Kids on the Block &#; The Whole Story By Their Friends

Published by Robin McGibbon March Price £ It reached No on the New York Times Bestsellers list.

Gazza! 

Published by Penguin October Price £

Phillip Schofield &#; The Whole Amazing Story. Published by Robin McGibbon April Price £

Simply Mick &#; Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, The Inside Story

Hardback published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson April Price £ It reached No.7 on the Sunday Times Bestsellers list.

Trade paperback published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson April Price £

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