Product Description

Peter Freestone was Freddie Mercury's personal assistant for the last 12 years of his life. He lived with Mercury in London, Munich, and New York, and was with him when he died. This is the most intimate account of Mercury's life ever written.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135404 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'The myth of Mercury's debauched private life is well and truly debunked by the man who was there throughout the toothsome showman's later years in this affectionate portrait...' Q

Customer Reviews

A touching and sensitive remembrance from Freddie's friends.
FREDDIE MERCURY: THE REAL LIFE is an interesting,moving and very entertaining book. To me, the one word that describes Freddie Mercury is "unique". It seems that his dedication, determination and perfectionism towards his career, is what made him the superstar that he was. We can all learn from an example like that. His friends all agreed that he had a flamboyant personality on stage, and an almost shy, quiet personality off stage. I found this very endearing. I must say that the parts that made me laugh out loud, were some of Freddie's one-line quotes. My favorite was when he announced that his doctor had forbade him vodka because of a liver complaint, and he says, "So get me a brandy!" What a wonderful sense of humor he must have had. All in all, reading this book helped me learn more about a man I have admired for a very long time. I found this book funny, touching, informative and sad. It left me feeling joyous at what a radiant and charming man he must have been, and at the same time so sad, that we have lost such an intoxicating and sparkling star.

Freddie Mercury The AfterLife by David Evans and Peter Freestone.
I wrote this because all the other reviews seemed to be about the first book and not this second book, so I thought this second book, Freddie Mercury The Afterlife, needed an actual review, so here goes: The front cover is a lovely, sweet picture of Freddie and Miko, the back cover is a portion of the final arrangements made for Freddie. I wasn't expecting to see that and it made me very sad even though I know he has been gone 16 years now. This second book takes up where the first one left off and is a description of Peter (Phoebe) Freestone's life since Freddie's passing. He talks about the various things he has been doing throughout the years. Peter mentions what the people talked about in the first book are doing as of 2003. There are some pictures I hadn't seen before within the book. Peter describes a visit he paid to Garden Lodge in 2003, where he met with Mary Austin and got to see Delilah again. He discusses some of the many books which have been written about Freddie and what he thinks of them. I only mentioned some things, the book contains much more than what I mention. David Evans speaks in it too and there's even Recipes of the different foods that would be made for Freddie.
Personally, it helped me to read this second book because it cleared up some confusion I had about some things written in the first book and too, even if it is silly on my part, it was nice to learn that Peter was okay, I had wondered since reading the first book.

A warm and moving memoir that sets the record straight
The publisher's blurb did not augur well: 'the most intimate account of Mercury's life ever written...Now [Freestone] tells all'. Not only that, but written "with" David Evans as well. It had kiss n' tell written all over it. Freddie's untimely death unleashed a tidalwave of substandard tosh onto the market. There are more books about Queen than live albums by Deep Purple and, as the latter proves, quantity does not necessarily equate with quality.

Since I embarked on the exasperating hobby of buying Queen-related books, an awful lot of money has been wasted on utter drivel. It was with a due sense of foreboding that I handed over my £15; and so it was with some surprise that I found myself thoroughly enjoying this book. On the whole, it is a well written and well researched account, providing an enlightening and enjoyable insight into the life of one of the great singer-songwriters and showmen of modern times. Peter 'Phoebe' Freestone spent the final twelve years in the Queen camp (most of it in Freddie's personal employ) and it shows. For anyone curious to know about Freddie's lifestyle, this book surpasses anything else I've seen.

The book works best when it describes Freddie on an 'ordinary' day leading an 'ordinary' lifestyle. His description of life at Garden Lodge, for example, is excellent, detailed but not especially intrusive. That's one of the book's hallmarks. It should appeal to genuine fans who want to know more about their hero but not in an obsessive or prurient way. "Intimate" is thoroughly misleading (naughty Omnibus; I wonder why you chose that particular word). There is much that is left private - and rightly so. Indeed, Freestone goes out of his way to explode a few myths peddled by the tabloids and the golddiggers. At the same time, he offers us the definitive account of the comings and goings on 24 November 1991, taking the opportunity to set the record straight without a whiff of sensationalism. Nor does he misuse the occasion to settle old scores, even though Freddie was badly let down at times. Paul Prenter's Judas-like act of betrayal, for example, merits barely a paragraph.

Inevitably, the book, like its subject, does have its flaws. Though Freestone is well served by Evans (who has written about Queen before), there are still some annoying factual errors. Queen performed in Berlin in 1982 not 1981 (p.44); Headlong was not the second single from Innuendo (p.130). In addition, Freestone is much less engaging when offering us his own opinions on matters outside the Queen inner circle and, at times, he comes across as curiously naive. I should have thought that the Falklands War and the patchy quality of Body Language/Hot Space might explain the "underwhelming" reception accorded to Las Palabras De Amor.

He is also happy to repeat tired old cliches about Queen's 'perfectionism' and 'the need to make each video more innovative than the last'. Fact: some Queen videos marked time (Another One Bites The Dust; Hammer To Fall). Fact: Queen recorded plenty of material with which individual band members were dissatisfied (Live Killers and Hot Space, for example). Fact: Queen allowed inferior products to be released in their name (Torpedo Twins, take a bow). Critics and fans alike would be so much more credible if they made an effort to be thoughtful and objective.

But these are minor quibbles. Perhaps inevitably, the years following Freddie's death were dominated by the vultures. As time passes, so more emerges from the Queen camp and we on the outside can start to get a more balanced picture, neither sensationalist nor hagiographic. Mary Austin and Mrs Bulsara have now appeared on television. Here we have the memoir of someone who has stayed loyal throughout and who wants to set the record straight on behalf of the man who was both his employer and his friend. Just imagine: if Brian starts his memoirs soon, we might get them before the century is through.