I assume Bellagio has read the book, otherwise wouldn't have deconstructed. And as it seems to be collection of old articles, probably amounts to same thing.
Ah yes, the inevitable 'why bother?' ; the terminal retort to the ether that is online discussion. Here's my 5p worth: I don't actually give a monkey's about Jones, her life and scribblings. As a former journalist, I do care about journalistic integrity and good writing, neither of which she displays. If she was to admit to outright trolling or the whole thing being some form of reflexive self-parody, I'd cut her some slack. I'll concede her one point though: she's better at fashion journalism, where I do think she shows some brutal honesty, albeit tinged with a touch of 'what's going to be controversial this week?'.
You're right, I haven't had the time to read her latest book, even though I found her previous ones quite well written & enjoyable.
I take it you have though.
Indeed I have - I make it a point never to praise (or vilify) something I've not experienced, and having read her other books, I can safely say that even by their low standards, this is an appallingly bad piece of writing, as almost all the other reviews (pro and amateur) point out, something the dire sales would strongly seem to support.
I see you've once more sidestepped my point about her theft of the words and emotions of others, so I feel I can safely assume you're perfectly happy with your heroine doing this. As a former journalist, researcher and a published author who has a great love and respect for teh written word, I find it utterly despicable, and anyone who condones, as you do, such practises isn't much better.
I also find it fascinating that you berate us for 'bothering' with her, yet return here regularly to grace us with your condescending observations (whenever I read your posts, I hear the voice of Margaret Thatcher in my head: somehow it fits perfectly).
Agreed, the "If you don't like it, don't read it" mantra is usually the only thing that Liz's supporters ever say, they never, ever give actual reasons for their devotion. Like, Jeff, my gripe with Liz is that she is the epitome of all things bad in journalism and the DM itself. She is, despite the 'bankrupt' claims, a very, very wealthy woman, she knows exactly what is expected of her and she is prepared to sink to the lowest depths to keep the pay cheques rolling in. So be it, but we are allowed to question the fraudulent claims of someone who tries to pass off her writing as the truth when clearly it is not.
I am at a loss as to why anyone would be a fan or enjoy this odious woman's writings. It's offensive, recycled and contradictory. I guess her "fans" are only a few as I see her book has slipped to 3,376 in the Amazon chart - what a monumental flop! she is so obviously disliked, bit like the time she wanted to raise money to shave her hair off for charity. Without doublechecking, as I recall, it was only 9 donations or thereabouts - total amount of £1,000. Wasn't she looking for at least £25,000 for a "trim" and £500,000 for a whole head shave?
Astor mentions her 'well documented' anorexia. Is it? Really? We see her mention it repeatedly, and we see various interviewers repeat what she tells them to say. All the photos I've seen seem to suggest she is perfectly well nourished. Anorexics tend to try and convince everyone they do eat, but don't. Jones seems to eat but tries to convince everone that she doesn't (all this half a banana a day rubbish). I suspect she might be occasionally bulimic (the ludicrously expensive mouthwash is a bit of a giveaway, and the rotting teeth prior to those glow-in-the-dark veneers) and this may have a lot do do with her overall control-freakery.
The review of the book in Private Eye is one of the best and incisive bits of writing I've seen in a long time.
Astor mentions her 'well documented' anorexia. Is it? Really? We see her mention it repeatedly, and we see various interviewers repeat what she tells them to say... The review of the book in Private Eye is one of the best and incisive bits of writing I've seen in a long time.
Indeed, the prime, if fact only, source for her claims to be anorexic is Jones herself, and I'll repeat here what others have said - for an alleged anorexic she is now, and always has appeared to be, adequately nourished. And yes, everyone should spend a few minutes in the newsagents reading the Private Eye review. It is brilliant.
She's popping up on the Lorraine Kelly segment of Daybreak any moment. Apparently talking about her 'feud' with Rihanna (or at least that's how they've made it look). As I have to go out I've set the Sky box to record it!
Edit: Looks like she has to stick to Daybreak now since she's effectively been banned from This Morning since her catty, uncalled for remarks about Holly Willoughby (watch her turn up on it now I've said that :D) She really does shoot herself in the foot doesn't she? How long before she writing something about Lorraine Kelly's 'sweaty cleavage' and ends up banned from Daybreak too?!
She's popping up on the Lorraine Kelly segment of Daybreak any moment. Apparently talking about her 'feud' with Rihanna (or at least that's how they've made it look). As I have to go out I've set the Sky box to record it!
Edit: Looks like she has to stick to Daybreak now since she's effectively been banned from This Morning since her catty, uncalled for remarks about Holly Willoughby (watch her turn up on it now I've said that :D) She really does shoot herself in the foot doesn't she? How long before she writing something about Lorraine Kelly's 'sweaty cleavage' and ends up banned from Daybreak too?!
Bearing in mind she's being pimped out by the publishers, couldn't they spare a minute to brief her first? For God's sake, trotting out the same half-a-dozen bits of tripe (Janice Dickinson/Anorexic/unhinged/supports women/banned from VB) isn't going to do the trick... WE KNOW!! Btw, it seems she is having serious skin problems around her mouth/chin... possibly stress related?
Nah, that's just the fillers and botox trying to escape. :eek:
This promo jaunt is too late: the timing was evidently planned to keep the book flying high after a triumphant first week topping the best sellers list, but of course it got outsold on Amazon by the likes of Pirate Pete's Potty (seriously !), and all that's going to happen is, peeps are going to go to Amazon, read the reviews and say "I think not !"
She's alleged to have 3,000,000 dedicated readers, and if only 5% of them bought the book, then 150,000 sales would have her topping pretty much every best sellers list in the country. I'm guessing the actual figure is closer to 0.0005%.
Can't help wondering if the advance was returnable...
[edit] - current Amazon sales rank (and here the word 'rank' is most apposite) is #3253 !
Thanks Seabird - the house move itself went very smoothly. I think my poor chap could have done without the tantrums and shouting sprees I performed in the months leading up to it though. I watched the Lizard on Lorraine this morning and couldn't take my eyes off her weird mouth and chin; it's got to be a result of all the crap she's done to herself. The programme did indeed try to make out it was going to be about her spat with Rihanna but it was a very lame and useless plug for her book. I was concious that as she was re-telling her stuff to Lorraine, I was joining in with her simultaneously in my mind, knowing pretty much exactly what she was going to say. :yawn: At the end of the 'interview', Lorraine announced that the book was a 'cracking read' but looked quite embarrassed and hadn't exactly waved the tome around with any enthusiasm over the five minutes LJ was on air.
Girl Least Likely To: Have A Bestseller - at a Poundland near you.
Afterthought. Has anyone read the Lyrics to Girl Least Likely To by Morrissey? I could imagine Liz swooning to them, as if they'd been written especially for her.
Afterthought. Has anyone read the Lyrics to Girl Least Likely To by Morrissey? I could imagine Liz swooning to them, as if they'd been written especially for her.
Once again, ColdComfort, I applaud you, this is very very funny!
Can I just say about this anorexia thing - anorexia is a mental illness, and it is perfectly possibly for a person to be normal- or even over-weight and suffer from the condition. They might not have it severely, they might be recovering, or they might be in the early stages of the condition. For example, a 14 stone woman might have only just started developing the illness and not lost the weight yet.
I know these examples are extreme, and not relevant to proving or disproving Liz's claimed illness, I'm just pointing out that you can't judge by appearance.
However, I do agree that Liz is exaggerating or fibbing, based on her history of attention seeking and contradicting herself, and the fact that she promotes damaging stereotypes that are not helpful to sufferers. She also behaves outright offensively at times, when in her position, she should be raising awareness.
I think the biggest problem we have here with her (alleged) anorexia is that she uses it as a tacit explanation for (and here, astor dear, I'm using her very own words) having her "pendulous udders" "hacked off": tacit because she ascribes the sudden acquisition of said norks (my phrase) to the steroid they gave her to combat the (alleged) anorexia... although, of course, in earlier articles there was no mention of this and she had the operation to enable her jackets to hang properly. The snag in our eyes - literally - is that she is patently nowhere as thin as she thinks she is (plus, if her tales of how much she eats are true, she really would look how she imagines she does - a virtual skeleton... but as she doesn't, this is evidently another lie).
I think the biggest problem we have here with her (alleged) anorexia is that she uses it as a tacit explanation for (and here, astor dear, I'm using her very own words) having her "pendulous udders" "hacked off": tacit because she ascribes the sudden acquisition of said norks (my phrase) to the steroid they gave her to combat the (alleged) anorexia... although, of course, in earlier articles there was no mention of this and she had the operation to enable her jackets to hang properly. The snag in our eyes - literally - is that she is patently nowhere as thin as she thinks she is (plus, if her tales of how much she eats are true, she really would look how she imagines she does - a virtual skeleton... but as she doesn't, this is evidently another lie).
I do agree
Does she ever say/imply she's thin? I don't read her spewings often but when I did I was under the impression that she thought she was chunky or something
I'm trying to not avidly read all her codswallop anymore (I said trying)
I refuse to fork out for the 'book', especially when I know it's all re-hashed rubbish anyway.
I'm assuming in a few weeks time when she realises just how badly her 'book' is doing we'll be faced with another sob story (story being the key word) in order to try and evoke some sympathy.
Does she ever say/imply she's thin? I don't read her spewings often but when I did I was under the impression that she thought she was chunky or something
A true anorexic does think she (or he) is chunky, even when they are frighteningly, even life-threateningly underweight. But for all Liz's protestations about anorexia, plenty of photos exist showing her to be of a perfectly normal size, even in the teenage days when she claims to have been starving herself. And since she claims to have been anorexic for at least 40 years, one would expect her to have been skeletally thin at some time. Although she says she was admitted to hospital and there are no pictures to refute or deny her condition at the time, her account of what happened there, and what the doctors said and did, is odd to say the least. She can hardly be said to be in the early stages of anorexia.
Guess who was on This Morning today? That's right - Liz! (after I'd said she was banned too I knew she'd turn up once I said that ). Mind you, wasn't Phil and Holly, not even Ruth and Eamonn but stand-in presenters Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton who, quite frankly, are terrible presenters (at least together.)
It was one of their 'debates' - should there be adult only planes? Guess which side of the debate Liz was on?! (I'm sure the lady in the debate with her is the one who was up against Katie Hopkins in the infamous 'chav' name debacle). Liz's up-her-own-backside comment of the day was that she should be rewarded for not having children :rolleyes: I have no idea what she meant because I was starting to glaze over as it was so boring. Oh and she also said that parents are afraid to tell their kids off - perhaps she means in public because other people tend to judge/look horrified? It was all a bit awkward and disjointed IMO, mainly because the presenters were so dire and weren't leading the discussion at all, just sitting giggling, fidgeting and making a right hash of it. I never thought anyone would annoy me more than Liz but these two numpties did!
Actually, I hate sitting near kids on aeroplanes so can sympathise with Liz's stance on this one a bit She did say that if not entirely child free they could have a special kids section, perhaps near the back of the plane.
I'm going to be fair and say that she came over OK, not a screaming harpy or as mad as usual. I didn't feel the urge to kick the TV like I did watching Lorraine Kelly simpering and Liz repeating the same old, same old :yawn:
A true anorexic does think she (or he) is chunky, even when they are frighteningly, even life-threateningly underweight. But for all Liz's protestations about anorexia, plenty of photos exist showing her to be of a perfectly normal size, even in the teenage days when she claims to have been starving herself. And since she claims to have been anorexic for at least 40 years, one would expect her to have been skeletally thin at some time. Although she says she was admitted to hospital and there are no pictures to refute or deny her condition at the time, her account of what happened there, and what the doctors said and did, is odd to say the least. She can hardly be said to be in the early stages of anorexia.
You can be anorexic and not be skeletal.
If you tell me she's a liar, and probably lied about this too, that's fair enough. I wouldn't believe a word she says.
But saying because she's not underweight and there are no pictures to prove she ever this proves she lied it's not correct.. Anorexia is a complex mental health problem, you can end up in hospital for severe lack of nourishment without looking particularly thin. People forget that only the most extreme cases are highlighted.
You can be anorexic and not be skeletal.
If you tell me she's a liar, and probably lied about this too, that's fair enough. I wouldn't believe a word she says.
But saying because she's not underweight and there are no pictures to prove she ever this proves she lied it's not correct.. Anorexia is a complex mental health problem, you can end up in hospital for severe lack of nourishment without looking particularly thin. People forget that only the most extreme cases are highlighted.
It's easy to understand why people are sceptical of Liz's anorexia when she claims that she used to fool the nurses at the clinic that she'd put weight on by sewing full hot water bottles into the lining of a heavy coat before stepping the scales...now, I must admit I have no personal experience of this but surely she would have been asked to remove said coat, and shoes too?
It's easy to understand why people are sceptical of Liz's anorexia when she claims that she used to fool the nurses at the clinic that she'd put weight on by sewing full hot water bottles into the lining of a heavy coat before stepping the scales...now, I must admit I have no personal experience of this but surely she would have been asked to remove said coat, and shoes too?
No I think it's totally understandable that people are sceptical, i do not believe a thing the woman says nowdays.
Another is thinking that only people that only underweight people are anorexic. That's totally inaccurate. And I've seen it repeated several times in this thread.
Comments
Ah yes, the inevitable 'why bother?' ; the terminal retort to the ether that is online discussion. Here's my 5p worth: I don't actually give a monkey's about Jones, her life and scribblings. As a former journalist, I do care about journalistic integrity and good writing, neither of which she displays. If she was to admit to outright trolling or the whole thing being some form of reflexive self-parody, I'd cut her some slack. I'll concede her one point though: she's better at fashion journalism, where I do think she shows some brutal honesty, albeit tinged with a touch of 'what's going to be controversial this week?'.
Indeed I have - I make it a point never to praise (or vilify) something I've not experienced, and having read her other books, I can safely say that even by their low standards, this is an appallingly bad piece of writing, as almost all the other reviews (pro and amateur) point out, something the dire sales would strongly seem to support.
I see you've once more sidestepped my point about her theft of the words and emotions of others, so I feel I can safely assume you're perfectly happy with your heroine doing this. As a former journalist, researcher and a published author who has a great love and respect for teh written word, I find it utterly despicable, and anyone who condones, as you do, such practises isn't much better.
I also find it fascinating that you berate us for 'bothering' with her, yet return here regularly to grace us with your condescending observations (whenever I read your posts, I hear the voice of Margaret Thatcher in my head: somehow it fits perfectly).
The review of the book in Private Eye is one of the best and incisive bits of writing I've seen in a long time.
Indeed, the prime, if fact only, source for her claims to be anorexic is Jones herself, and I'll repeat here what others have said - for an alleged anorexic she is now, and always has appeared to be, adequately nourished. And yes, everyone should spend a few minutes in the newsagents reading the Private Eye review. It is brilliant.
Edit: Looks like she has to stick to Daybreak now since she's effectively been banned from This Morning since her catty, uncalled for remarks about Holly Willoughby (watch her turn up on it now I've said that
Bearing in mind she's being pimped out by the publishers, couldn't they spare a minute to brief her first? For God's sake, trotting out the same half-a-dozen bits of tripe (Janice Dickinson/Anorexic/unhinged/supports women/banned from VB) isn't going to do the trick... WE KNOW!! Btw, it seems she is having serious skin problems around her mouth/chin... possibly stress related?
This promo jaunt is too late: the timing was evidently planned to keep the book flying high after a triumphant first week topping the best sellers list, but of course it got outsold on Amazon by the likes of Pirate Pete's Potty (seriously !), and all that's going to happen is, peeps are going to go to Amazon, read the reviews and say "I think not !"
She's alleged to have 3,000,000 dedicated readers, and if only 5% of them bought the book, then 150,000 sales would have her topping pretty much every best sellers list in the country. I'm guessing the actual figure is closer to 0.0005%.
Can't help wondering if the advance was returnable...
[edit] - current Amazon sales rank (and here the word 'rank' is most apposite) is #3253 !
Girl Least Likely To: Have A Bestseller - at a Poundland near you.
Once again, ColdComfort, I applaud you, this is very very funny!
I know these examples are extreme, and not relevant to proving or disproving Liz's claimed illness, I'm just pointing out that you can't judge by appearance.
However, I do agree that Liz is exaggerating or fibbing, based on her history of attention seeking and contradicting herself, and the fact that she promotes damaging stereotypes that are not helpful to sufferers. She also behaves outright offensively at times, when in her position, she should be raising awareness.
I do agree
Does she ever say/imply she's thin? I don't read her spewings often but when I did I was under the impression that she thought she was chunky or something
I refuse to fork out for the 'book', especially when I know it's all re-hashed rubbish anyway.
I'm assuming in a few weeks time when she realises just how badly her 'book' is doing we'll be faced with another sob story (story being the key word) in order to try and evoke some sympathy.
A true anorexic does think she (or he) is chunky, even when they are frighteningly, even life-threateningly underweight. But for all Liz's protestations about anorexia, plenty of photos exist showing her to be of a perfectly normal size, even in the teenage days when she claims to have been starving herself. And since she claims to have been anorexic for at least 40 years, one would expect her to have been skeletally thin at some time. Although she says she was admitted to hospital and there are no pictures to refute or deny her condition at the time, her account of what happened there, and what the doctors said and did, is odd to say the least. She can hardly be said to be in the early stages of anorexia.
It was one of their 'debates' - should there be adult only planes? Guess which side of the debate Liz was on?! (I'm sure the lady in the debate with her is the one who was up against Katie Hopkins in the infamous 'chav' name debacle). Liz's up-her-own-backside comment of the day was that she should be rewarded for not having children :rolleyes: I have no idea what she meant because I was starting to glaze over as it was so boring. Oh and she also said that parents are afraid to tell their kids off - perhaps she means in public because other people tend to judge/look horrified? It was all a bit awkward and disjointed IMO, mainly because the presenters were so dire and weren't leading the discussion at all, just sitting giggling, fidgeting and making a right hash of it. I never thought anyone would annoy me more than Liz but these two numpties did!
Actually, I hate sitting near kids on aeroplanes so can sympathise with Liz's stance on this one a bit
I'm going to be fair and say that she came over OK, not a screaming harpy or as mad as usual. I didn't feel the urge to kick the TV like I did watching Lorraine Kelly simpering and Liz repeating the same old, same old :yawn:
And her book wasn't mentioned once :cool:
http://www.itv.com/thismorning/life/liz-jones-should-there-be-child-free-flights/
You can be anorexic and not be skeletal.
If you tell me she's a liar, and probably lied about this too, that's fair enough. I wouldn't believe a word she says.
But saying because she's not underweight and there are no pictures to prove she ever this proves she lied it's not correct.. Anorexia is a complex mental health problem, you can end up in hospital for severe lack of nourishment without looking particularly thin. People forget that only the most extreme cases are highlighted.
It's easy to understand why people are sceptical of Liz's anorexia when she claims that she used to fool the nurses at the clinic that she'd put weight on by sewing full hot water bottles into the lining of a heavy coat before stepping the scales...now, I must admit I have no personal experience of this but surely she would have been asked to remove said coat, and shoes too?
No I think it's totally understandable that people are sceptical, i do not believe a thing the woman says nowdays.
Another is thinking that only people that only underweight people are anorexic. That's totally inaccurate. And I've seen it repeated several times in this thread.