Coming to London aged thirteen from desperate poverty in Jamaica; pregnant at fifteen after being abused by a family friend; fifteen years later singing in Boney M, one of the biggest international groups of the late-1970s; a messy group split and millions in unpaid royalties during the 1980s; a 1990s solo career interrupted by six bouts of cancer - ovarian, breast, lymph node (twice), spine and oesophagus - and having to learn to walk again.
Yet throughout Marcia Barrett has remained totally cheerful, relentlessly optimistic and a shining inspiration, looking on every obstacle as a mere inconvenience rather than anything insurmountable. Now, she is ready to tell her fantastic story, which is much more than just a pop star autobiography.
It is a charming, candid, laugh-out-loud story of survival, triumph, indomitable spirit and total upfullness, often driven by sheer force of will. It is also that very rare thing in British publishing, a feelgood story for black women that has real significance among the UK's African-Caribbean population - there are very few middle-aged black women in this country (a keen book-buying demographic) who didn't, as youngsters, have hairbraiding copied from Marcia Barrett. But of course it has a mainstream audience too: the battles against cancer are relevant to all women, as is much of her early personal life and balancing looking after her mother and son with life on the road in Boney M.
Marcia Barrett learnt from an early age that poverty might dictate what you are but it doesn't have to dictate who you are: in rural Jamaica, where she was born, there was no electricity and food was scarce. She washed her clothes in the river and collected firewood after school. When Marcia and her sister arrived in Britain in 1963 to join their mother, the three of them lived in a single room and Marcia worked in a launderette to make ends meet.
Fifteen years later, she was a lead vocalist in one of the biggest international groups of the 1970s, Boney M. Following a messy group split at the end of the 1980s, Marcia embarked on a successful solo career, before being struck down by five separate bouts of cancer during the 1990s - ovarian, breast, lymph node, spine and oesophagus - and having to learn to walk again.
In Forward . . ., Marcia goes behind the scenes on the hits (including 'Daddy Cool', 'Brown Girl in the Ring' and 'Rasputin'), the costumes and iconic hairstyles, friendly rivalry with ABBA and life on the road. But that's only half the story. Marcia also candidly discusses her teenage pregnancy, heart-breaking financial struggles, overcoming cancer, finding true love, and her journey from small-town rural Jamaica to global stardom via 1960s south London.
Inspirational and relentlessly optimistic, Forward . . . is a rags-to-riches tale of survival and perseverance for women everywhere.
Wonderful . . . an uplifting true tale of triumph against hardship
