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Today I, Kenny Grice, will look at some of the negative Amazon reviews who didn't see the book for the tissue of lies it really was. The author was so desperate to get a Verified Purchase she bought one from Amazon herself!!!!!! She must have a whole garage full of the bloody things at Ma and Pa's house. That is the type of nutter you are dealing with here. Her erotomania is driving her nearer and nearer to insanity. Apparently she is known as Batty Lightyear "To insanity and beyond".

The first review I will publish is one by, I, Kenny Grice. This is an unpublished one that I wrote earlier.

Peter Wyngarde: What Have I Done to Deserve This?

If you want to read a good and believable biography of the distinguished actor then the wait goes on.

I've been a fan of the late great Peter Wyngarde for over 50 years since 'Department S debuted in 1969.

When I heard that this book was coming out I was really looking forward to it. However alarm bells were starting to ring when I saw it was courtesy of a vanity publisher.

The book is in two distinct parts. The first details Peter's hectic life up to the March 1988. The second half concentrates on the period from spring 88 when the author met Peter. The author's detail on Peter's work has to be commended even though most of it is through rose tinted spectacles. Having said that Peter was great raconteur of his own tall stories.

All goes well until people who don't follow her version of Peter's life crop up in the biography.

The author has a pop at Donald Spoto, the biographer of Peter's lover, Alan Bates because she says he gets the year of Peter's birth wrong in his 2008 book by saying 1933. In 2008 Peter (and the author) were still telling everyone it was 1933. After Peter's death 1933 has now been revised to a more accurate 1928. The author chides Mr Spotto for getting it wrong and said he should have ensured "that such a basic statistic was chronicled correctly". Mr Spotto could only rely on what Peter was saying.

The author herself is prone to several chronicling errors as she says twice than 'The Man from X' was the first 'Department S' episode filmed. In fact it was the 19th! The first episode filmed was 'The Man in the Elegant Room'. 'Jason King' began filming at Elstree on Monday 26th October 1970. Yet the author has Peter signing his initial contract on the 8th March 1971 to make the series. They were nearly half way through making the series by then!

.In the first half of the book the author is besotted with trying to make Peter out as a heterosexual. Why is she so obsessed with Peter not being gay and shooting down in flames anyone that differs from her idea? That all becomes very evident in Part 2 when she and Peter start a "relationship" together. If Peter was gay then that would sow a seed of doubt in the reader's mind that perhaps their "relationship" is not all it is purported to be.

She declares that Peter's long term lover Bates was gay but Peter wasn't. This is despite the fact they shared a very small flat for years and it was an open secret in the world of showbiz. Peter is pictured with many "girlfriends". What is wrong that Peter was gay? Nothing at all. It is not a crime to be gay. The chapter on the Gloucester lavatory incident had me staring in disbelief at the pages. Everyone is guilty apart from Peter. It was the newspapers, the police, a lot of straight men go through this experience, he was "metrosexual" and he had too much wine that night.

And in 1977 we get the previously unreported paternity case in Austria! This would have been reported in the UK papers because Peter was still a big celebrity then. Internet searches revealed nothing.

In the excellent Bay City Roller - Alan Longmuir's autobiography "I Ran with the Gang' he tells of a 1971 party he went to at the now disgraced former Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning's house. Denning is currently residing at Her Majesty's pleasure. Tam Paton (Bay City Rollers' manager) had taken the group there along with Jonathan King. When Alan Longmuir looked around all the guests were male and it suddenly dawned on him that this was a gay party for men only. And who should also be a guest? One Peter Wyngarde.

I have been a long term acquaintance of a famous British film director who has made movies with the likes of John Gielgud. Gielgud was also done for cottaging but who cares? I asked the director if Peter was gay? He laughed at me and said "Of course he was". I attended a talk with Sir Roger Moore and the subject of Peter Wyngarde came up. Sir Roger said "Ah Jason Queen"!. It was common knowledge but the author won't have it to be.

I found Part 2 to be a mixture of writing styles ranging from Barbara Cartland to Stephen King to James Thurber to Alan Partridge,

And why is there only one unflattering picture of the couple together? She claims to have known Mr Wyngarde from early March 1988 but the only image is from a fan convention.

"Kenny Grice". A name to conjure with. Mr "Grice" turns up like the proverbial bad penny and allegedly extorts money from a gullible Peter. We hear in detail what a nasty person "Kenny Grice" was. He spent 2 spells in prison and also gave evidence at an unnamed person's inquest. Why is the person unnamed? Anyone would think Mr "Grice" didn't exist. In fact I've searched the internet and can find no "Kenny Grice" in Norfolk or Borehamwood even mentioned. The author said "Kenny Grice" was mentioned in an unnamed newspaper but no trace online.

Why does the author have a weird fixation with Peter's private parts? It really is bizarre and why would you put this into a biography? It has no relevance whatsoever and cheapens Peter.

The last few chapters in the book disgusted me. Why does the author feel the need to publicly have a nasty dig at Peter's family? And also why those truly petty but cruel jibes at true fans of the great man? It really left a bad taste in my mouth. Peter would have never wanted that despite what he is allegedly quoted as saying. He sadly isn't here to repudiate this utter drivel.

Peter's former agent is often drafted in to back up the author's version of events. He was called on so many times the poor man must have been tearing his hair out.

How come Peter could send incredibly long and well worded texts to the author as he lay on his hospital bed with not long to live? And did Peter keep copies of all letters he sent? I couldn't work out how the author would know what was in them otherwise.

I see one fellow reviewer says this is rewriting history. Understatement of the century. This is tearing up 90 almanacs and flushing them down the toilet.

Thanks for reading. I will leave you with author's own words from page 413:
"It did ,however, emphasise the lengths to which an obsessed fan will go to endear themselves to a person they idolise". Fancy.

Kenny Grice c/o HMP Wormwood Scrubs

The review below was the first published and it really threw its toys out the pram here. She accused the writer of making it up because there was no way he could have owned a copy. She deliberately ignored the fact the Hive had mailed a load out 10 days before its publication date.

The review below was written by Torchwood2 and published on the 27th Feb 2020. It was titled "Never Mind the Contents, Feel the Cover".

While not having read the whole thing. I just thought I'd say it's terrible. Absolutely terrible.

EDIT: having read the book now. There actually is half a good book there. Sadly it is accompanied by the delusional ramblings of the second half of the book. So the one star stands and be thankful Tina, or Lt Data as you are hiding yourself now, there isn't a zero rating or I'd be taking off the one blinking star that I did give it.

The cover to my paperback copy is peeling off already. Whatever company made this should be sent back to school. Clearly have no idea what they are doing! I'll add what I think about the actual text later. So far, that's pretty awful too. Did nobody proof read this? Bloody amateurish effort all round.

I've received my copy of this book and I have to say how very disappointed I am with it. It is blatantly obvious that the Author has tried to rewrite Peter's life story because she has missed out some of the most important facts about Peter and his past relationships. What does come through in the book though is that it is quite clear Tina will not hear any negativity about Peter, when one writes a biography of someone, it has to include the good with the bad. Sadly this book isn't the wonderfully detailed full account of Peter's life we were all given to believe it was going to be, it have more of a tone of "revenge". I would also question the people who have been asked to provide anecdotes for the book, most of them are people Peter worked with very briefly, more emphasis should have been placed on talking to those people who knew the "real" Peter Wyngarde.

She really spat her dummy out over Lost in Transit's review entitled: This isn't the biography of Peter you want to read".

This review is going to concentrate on three aspects – the quality of the printed book itself, the quality of the writing, and the content.

The quality of the book itself: it’s a long read, so it’s a big book. My copy came through warped ie the pages don’t lie flat in the cover, and the corners were bashed, which could be down to storage by the seller and/or transit.
The quality of the writing is to be expected from the mistress of passive aggression. There is a seething anger in the writing, which is unpleasant and actually gets quite wearisome. If anyone has had the misfortune to be/have been a member of the “official” facebook group, you’ll recognise the style immediately. It could have also done with a good proof read – but as the book is a vanity publication there will have been no money from the publisher to do this, so instead the author will have relied on good will. Unfortunately, she has made so many enemies – all of whom are blocked from the “official” facebook group, therefore leaving just sycophants who hang on and believe her every word – I doubt there was much good will forthcoming. The result is that it’s riddled with errors, mis-spellings and lack of consistency in spellings.

So far, so bad. What about the content? Well, the first half is reasonably straight (ha!) forward. With emphasis on the straight. Alongside the career biography, the author goes at great lengths to try and prove Peter wasn’t gay (or bisexual) but entirely straight, detailing apparent dalliances with a steady stream of starlets, including a 1970s paternity case (conveniently abroad, but even so no proof of this is provided), a planned marriage between the author and Peter, and their plans to start a family. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Aside from the author, I am aware of no-one else who believes he wasn’t gay. She demands proof any time anyone states otherwise. Yet the only proof she really offers is her apparent 30 year relationship with Peter which has more holes than the plot of a poor episode of Jason King. She provides no other proof.

This 30 year issue is also troublesome. She claims to have come into Peter’s life in early 1988. Yet she didn’t set up the fan club until the early 90s – which is documented, printed fact thanks to a newspaper interview she gave in the 90s. There was a falling out between her and Peter which lasted longer than she claims. And there is just one picture of her and Peter at a public autograph signing. Absolutely no other photos of her and Peter, despite her claims they holidayed together, were due to get married etc. None. Not one. Even some of the “evidence” on the website accompanying the book is doctored. One note written by Peter has some badly superimposed kisses on the bottom. So even this “proof” is setting out to deceive. However, she does seem to finally agree on certain issues around Peter’s birth ie birth date and birth name, which she herself previously disputed, publicly, on places like the National Portrait Gallery website. But the fact she has so vehemently and publicly protested against the facts she now agrees on, the whole book could be called into question.

In the end, for someone who claims to have been the love of Peter’s life, she actually paints him in a really bad light – which leaves a bad taste in your mouth and somewhat puts you off the man himself. That is of course if you believe it.

Ultimately, this is not the biography fans of the man want to read. The author has so thoroughly woven herself into the story, it’s impossible to distinguish fact from fiction. The fact the author herself has written a 5 star review (as Lt Data) on Amazon tells you everything you need to know about her and her motives. Any hopes of getting some truth around the man himself – an enigma in life – have all but been lost thanks to his death and this rotten tome.

That was chicken feed compared to the fit it had when Lazarus published his entitled: Starts great: disappointing finish".

Let me start by saying that I’ve been an admirer of Peter Wyngarde for many years and when I heard that a biography was to be published, written by Tina Wyngarde – Hopkins, I was both surprised and shocked. As a member of the original HellFire fan club I recall receiving an email from Tina Bate( as was her name then) in 2006 telling me about the closure of the club and her reasons. It was stated that Peter was being uncooperative and not sending her information that she requested. There were also rising costs to be considered. It would appear that the relationship between her and Peter had broken down completely and, in her words, it was untenable. In 2014 she announced that they had made up and the Hellfire Club re-appeared.
Anyway, let’s get to the book. The first part charts Cyril Goldbert’s ( yes; his real name is finally acknowledged) early years and the difficulties he faced until he eventually arrived back in the UK to be reunited with his family. I think if I went through what he did I’d want to create a new identity as a way of forgetting the past. Hence Peter Wyngarde was created. Not one to do anything by halves he created a new name, date of birth and family.
The book goes on to discuss his early career and does so in great detail. This is really the only part of the book that makes interesting reading. There are sections that I think are unnecessary and by that I mean the regular mentions of his penis. Had the author concentrated on his career I would have given the book a higher rating.
Historically it is well known that many gay male actors were forced by the studios to marry as homosexuality was illegal and it would also alienate fans. Peter duly married although it didn’t last long and there were no children. He remained single for the rest of his life. The book goes on to discuss various other women in his life so as to cast doubt on his being gay. This was the norm for gay actors from that generation. The author even places herself into his life as his soulmate and lover for a period of 30 years. There is documented evidence that she only met him in 1993 ( a newspaper interview that she gave) and he died in 2018. That brings it down to a possible 25 years. Then there were the 8 years that they had no contact which now knocks it to 17 years. It is my belief that she served a purpose of running his fan club only but wanted a relationship with him. I am also informed that the actress Madeline Smith posted that Peter was happily gay. The author objected to this statement and via Peters agent Thomas Bowington, was coerced into retracting her comment.
A confusing part is the quoting of letters that Peter supposedly wrote to others. Did he enclose an SAE so that they might send the letters back? Several letters are also shown on the Hellfire Club Website. There is what is supposed to be a will which is not witnessed and comes with spelling errors and which in my understanding wouldn’t be considered legal.
Towards the end of the book the author has decided to verbally abuse anyone who happened to dispute her supposed relationship with Peter Wyngarde. It doesn’t make for pleasant reading but shows that the author seems to suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Erotomania.

I, Kenny Grice, think the review above is the most accurate.

Now, the loony paid Amazon for her own book so she could write a Verified Purchase Review written by a third party. When this review was published it was under the name Lt Data. Yes, if that was going to fool anybody. The review was signed by Tania Donald, Australia. Who the hell is she? Obviously made up by her.

In the past she used her real name to review a book about a leading Nazi SS murder and Jason King DVDs. Then she became Lt Data. I see now she has a new name of Budgie! Presumably because her budgie topped itself after having to listen to her insane rants for years

The review was headed: The most honest and diligently researched biography out there. Ha de f*cking ha!

“Peter Wyngarde – A Life Amongst Strangers” is both a meticulously researched showbiz biography and the story of the extraordinary thirty year relationship between Peter and the book’s author, Tina Wyngarde-Hopkins. What is so compelling about the book is that as well as documenting the course of Peter Wyngarde’s remarkable career, Tina takes the reader behind the stage curtain and allows us to see fully and in three dimensions the man loved by so many for the wonderful characters he created.

To people who have viewed Peter Wyngarde only as a figure on a screen, or as a name in a bit of showbiz gossip, this book will be nothing less than a revelation – and no doubt a startling one as it will certainly shatter many widely-held preconceptions and myths. But clearly we all need to be reminded that the public figures who are the subject of both adoration and malicious gossip are real people with real lives and real feelings: this, Tina achieves in the most compelling way.

She conjures for us the story of a man of great talent and personal charisma, who by the force of his gifts and determination, rises out of a difficult childhood to reach the summit of his profession. As a work examining the history of British theatre and television from the Fifties onward, and Peter’s journey through it, it is filled with colourful and fascinating detail. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of Peter’s story, however, is to fully grasp how, in the latter part of his career, this giant of the stage and screen – as eager as ever to work – finds his talents so sadly underused, due to forces both external and internal. Tina’s exploration of Peter’s life and career is as honest as it is eye-opening, and while she does not shy away from Peter’s more difficult characteristics and painful life experiences, the thread running through this book is a story of love and devotion that is deeply touching and ultimately heart-wrenching. Readers will certainly understand the author’s incorporation of “Wyngarde” into her name by the end of the book.

It is an intimate memoir in many ways – at times, painfully so. Tina conveys the ups and downs of a sometimes tempestuous relationship with uncommon frankness and openness.

Readers may be shocked by the candour of some of the disclosures in this book, but what emerges from the author’s account of Peter’s life is a portrait of Peter Wyngarde as a man as complex and filled with contradictions as any of us. And could we expect any less from the actor who brought the iconic Jason King – the ultimate maverick and non-conformist – to life so vividly? Indeed, Tina’s great achievement with this biography is in evoking for the reader the reality that behind the screen icon there was a real person, striving and struggling with the human frailties we all share – and as deserving of our empathy and our understanding as we would hope ourselves to be if similarly judged in the public spotlight. I have rarely read a biography that gives such a complete sense of its subject, both as an artist and as a real human being.”

Tania Donald - Melbourne, Australia

The above was written by the author. She is f*cking mad.

Any doubts that Budgie is behind the Nazi book review and the placing of her own book review on Amazon are soon dispelled when Budgie's Amazon banner is this:

One of her 4 other reviews is a book about the brutal Nazi murderer Reinhard Heydrich. Obviously a hero of the author's. The author clearly fancies herself as more of an expert than the author of the book. Hail the Fuhrer.