13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
TV legend is says she's spilling the beans with tell-all memoir as she turns 90
The Carry On and Coronation Street legend has promises a no holds barred look back at her seven-decades career on stage and screen because she now feels free to do so 'without fear or favour'
Coronation Street legend Amanda Barrie is finally lifting the lid on her extraordinary life in a tell-all autobiography as she turns 90 – and she promises: "I will hold nothing back.'
The legendary actress – best known for playing Alma Baldwin in Coronation Street and Cleopatra in the Carry On films – says she's 'finally ready to tell everything' in I'm Still Here, which hits shelves this September, just days before she turns 90.
She teases that the bombshell memoir will be filled with secrets, scandal, and stories from her glittering seven-decade career on stage and screen.
Amanda laughs: 'If I manage not to fall off the twig before September I shall have been 'here' for 90 extraordinary years. More than anything this means I now say and do exactly what I like. When and where I like. And so, as I write my unexpurgated life story, I at last feel free to do so without fear or favour."
Born amid the chaos of World War II, Amanda ran away from home aged just 13 to become a Soho showgirl – the first daring step in a remarkable life that would eventually see her crowned a true national treasure.
Her memoir will chart her rise from those wild early days to becoming a household name, starring in everything from the cheeky Carry On films to Bad Girls, and even making a splash in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
But it's not just the glitz and glamour Amanda's ready to talk about. For the first time, the star will open up about her deeply personal journey – including falling in love with her now-wife, acclaimed novelist Hilary Bonner, who is also ghostwriting the book.
Amanda reveals the pain of growing up as a young gay woman in an era when homosexuality was still illegal for men, and the 'heart-wrenching' choice to keep her sexuality private for most of her life.
'I have 90 years to share: 90 years of joy and sorrow, triumph and disaster, love and loss, laughter and tears,' she says. 'Ninety years of watching the world change around me beyond my wildest imagination. And I will hold nothing back.'
Fergus McKenna, Managing Director of Mirror Books, said: 'It is an overused word but there's little doubt that Amanda Barrie is a legend in the world of show business. With more than 80 years of performing under her belt and a life lived under the glare of the spotlights, she has seen and done almost everything. And she's not afraid to share those stories in full for the first time.'
Amanda Barrie's autobiography I'm Still Here is out September 2025. Click here to preorder the book.
