Shirley: an appreciation of the life of Shirley Bassey

Shirley Bassey is one of the all-time greats of the entertainment business.

She has sold more records than any other British female singer and still commands massive audiences around the world.

Now, after a career spanning decades, her life story can be told: the story of a triumph over enough tragedies to last several lifetimes.

The personal hardships that have fuelled the emotionalism of her songs have never before been revealed.

Here her poverty-stricken childhood in Wales is detailed: how her mother struggled to bring up seven children on Income Support after their Nigerian father was deported; how she worked in a saucepan factory when her first struggles for stardom were halted by her pregnancy at sixteen.

Shirley had a series of tortured loves: she married a homosexual Cockney who died of an overdose; she had a highly publicised affair with actor Peter Finch; and her second marriage, to an Italian, also failed.

The shocking death of her second daughter, Samantha, just before her 21st birthday caused Shirley to lose her voice for nearly a year.

Behind the showbiz glamour and consummate professionalism lies a fiercely resilient and independent woman.