I really enjoyed this book. I thought her stories were frank and real. And she knows what details are best left private!!!

I was drawn to WONDERFUL TONIGHT--written and read by Pattie
Boyd--by its subtitle: GEORGE HARRISON, ERIC CLAPTON, AND
ME . . . I thought to myself that I had heard of those guys; in fact, I
had grown up listening to much of their music.

Yet I had not followed their personal lives all that closely, nor had
I known too much about Boyd other than the fact that she had been
married to both Harrison and Clapton.

It turns out that she was more than just their respective wives . . . she
was also their muse, having inspired Harrison's classic "Something"
and "Layla," Clapton's rock anthem.

In addition, she lived a fascinating life . . . WONDERFUL TONIGHT
explores it in vivid detail, including this recollection of her first real
encounter with Clapton:

* It was a sweet, turbulent life, but one that would take an
unexpected turn, starting with a simple note that began
"dearest l."

I read it quickly and assumed that it was from some weirdo;
I did get fan mail from time to time. . . . I thought no
more about it until that evening when the phone rang. It was
Eric [Clapton]. "Did you get my letter?" . . . And then
the penny dropped. "Was that from you?" I said. . . . It
was the most passionate letter anyone had ever written me.

Unfortunately, Boyd had her share of heartaches . . . her
childhood was interrupted by the divorce of her parents,
both her famous husbands cheated on her, and she was also
abused by Clapton . . . to her credit, she managed to turn
her life around and since has become a well-respected
photographer.

The author broke a 40-year period of silence with this book . . I'm glad
she did . . . do read or listen to it if you want to know more about
the music scene of the 1960s and 70s.

Very good book here. Really good stories of clapton and harrison. The funnything i took away from this was that , even the greatest guys go thru depression and experience the sames things that we all face. Sometimes, in life, what you think you need is not often what is best for you. As patty proves at the end of the book.

I really enjoyed this book about Pattie's life. It starts off with the background of her family which I always find fascinating. She didn't have the greatest childhood, but she sure made up for it as an adult! Thanks to this book,when I hear George Harrison and Eric Clapton songs, I think of the background stories she told about some of these songs. Great insight on what it was like to be up-close and personal with two talented musicians and their friends and family.

A story well told. Patty Boyd has had quite a life and does a wonderful job sharing her story. I've always wondered what life with the Beatles was like and she gives great details. The rock n'roll lifestyle (life with Eric Clapton) may not be everyone's dream after-all. Her story was well told and left me wanting more. I enjoyed every moment I spent reading her book.

I had heard tidbits about how Eric Clapton "stole" George Harrison's beautiful wife, Patti Boyd before, and I was curious about how that happened and...then what? Happily ever after? No, no. Patti gives us the whole story, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the world of rock and roll musicians. The relationship interplays, the emotions, the disappointment over songs that don't "make it." The stories behind the creation of some unforgettable songs, and the personalities and friendships of the people we see only as public figures. After I read this book, I read "Clapton" and got a perspective from that side of the story. Fascinating and, well, "lovely." Well worth the read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a fascinating read, having grown up in the 60's, I could relate to everything and everyone she talked about in the book. She was the 60's "It" Girl. She had "The Look" and everyone wanted to be like her. She had an incredible life. Even her sisters went out with or were married to famous Rock stars. The thing that I really empathized with her about was that she realized too late that George was really the love of her life. There was always a bond between them until the day he died. He even tried to help her out financially after they were divorced. I also could understand the emotional devastation she must have felt when she could not have children and Eric comes home and tell her his Mistress is having a baby and asks her to help raise him. She lived for these two men and totally lost her identity wondering what she would do with her life after her divorce from Clapton, who she says "was hell to live with." He pursued her and once he got her, took her for granted. I get the impression that she is a very classy, honorable woman. She is also a fabulous Photograher. Enjoy the book!

I can relate to this book as a wife of a musican. I see how Pattie made the most of bad situations. We do what we are so supposed to to do.
except that indescresitions happen. I love her stretgh. I relate to this on so many levels.

I'm a huge Beatles fan, so I got the book to read about Pattie and George (and was not disappointed on that front). But the rest of the book is really insightful, interesting and really represents Pattie's personal journey more than being gossipy or slandering anyone.

While she without doubt had an interesting life, Patti Boyd' s tale may not really need to have been told. While she was married to George Harrisona nd Clapton, and she clearly inspired Layla (and was very pretty) she really comes over as she writes herself at one point (as does another reviewer) as a door mat. Ths 2 stars also come over as extremely self-centered people who used her (Harrison comes over better). Clapton is a cheating drunk who she manages constantly to find excuses for...oh boy...I bought this because I was on vacation and wanted to read it but I should have gotten the paperback instead...it would have been cheaper

I absolutely loved this book. I think it was written with very honest voice and truly enjoyed every page. I will probably read it again! Well done!

This is a fascinating book for those of us who came of age in the Sixties and know of whom Pattie Boyd speaks. Married to rock icons George Harrison and Eric Clapton, Pattie lived every girl's fantasy. Or so we thought.

There was a dark side to drugs and rock and roll, and Pattie tells us all about it. But she also tells the good side, and so much of the insider stuff is just pure fun to read, especially when one remembers one's perceptions of how it must have been. If, however, you need to idolize George Harrison and Eric Clapton as the super rock gods they were, it's probably best not to read about them as mortal men.

With all the drugs and alcohol that Pattie did alongside her men, it's amazing she is still alive to tell the tale. But she is, and although the book drops off into a few chapters of endless (and I do mean endless) name dropping at the end, it's still worth a read if, like me, your soul never quite left the Sixties.

I am glad I skimmed this book in a bookstore and did not waste my money by purchasing it. Pattie's book includes a lot of information that Beatles fans probably already know. Also, Pattie seems to have felt superior to Cynthia Lennon because Pattie says that, unlike Cynthia, she had a career and attended private schools. So, I would like to know why, in my opinion, Cynthia's memoir, which is entitled John, is vastly superior to Pattie's book. Unlike this book, Cynthia's is very well written and insightful.

I'm a Beatle fan of epic proportions and have been since I was twelve (I'm in my forties now). I was so excited when this came out I couldn't wait to read it. My wife bought it for me for my last birthday and I have to say, this isn't just one of the worst books on the Beatles I've ever read, it may be one of the worst written books I've ever read, period. Everything the other reviews say about timelimes being erratic, well known facts totally being distorted and Pattie sounding like nothing more than a whinning, self-centered, shallow baby are dead-on accurate. I always thought that Pattie was a beautiful and talented woman of the sixties that had captivated and inspired two of the decades greatest icons with her wit, beauty, and charm. After reading this I don't even think she would be capable of holding a coherent conversation. The woman just sounds like an idiot and this is by judging her from her own words. She apparently contributed nothing to the marriages (except for being a drug and drinking buddy), spent tons of money on herself, and is now whinning because the party's over. No wonder Harrison and Clapton dumped her. After reading this I don't think I could stand her for more than fifteen minutes. If you want to know what Pattie Boyd had for lunch at some expensive retreat on a vacation paid for by an estranged husband all the while hearing her complain about how hungover she was at the time, then buy now. Otherwise, don't become her latest money victim like George and Eric were.

After reading Eric Clapton's autobiography, I was keen on reading Patty Boyd-Harrison-Clapton's own biography/testimony. Now that I have finished her book, my reactions are mixed.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn Ms. Boyd spent her early years as a child in Kenya. Although there are sad memories in Kenya, her discussion about that time is one of the best parts of the book.

Unfortunately, once grown up and beginning her life as a model, her story becomes a horn of plenty for names, food, dinners and parties. This onslaught has lead to the charge that Ms Boyd is a very superficial, name-dropping, social-climbing jet-setter. Oddly, this is precisely the person Ms. Boyd had wanted to prove she was not in writing this book. My inclination is to believe that Ms. Boyd is an intelligent and introspective lady. Such a person pokes up from the text several times. Thus this continuous parade of names and parties--while perhaps accurate as far as it goes--only obscures the real story she wants to tell.

(On the other hand, one can only be amazed that Ms. Boyd remembers so much detail about who she met when and what they ate. I can't necessarily remember who was at the office Christmas party just six months ago much less what I was eating on a particular day forty years ago.)

Buried in Ms Boyd narrative is a tale of a self-doubting and insecure young girl slowly growing into a mature and self-directed woman. This could have been a good story all by itself; but if you weren't looking for it you'd miss it. Instead, we get occasional admissions of confusion and "low self esteem" during the major tumultuous crossroads in her life. These admissions get to be a little annoying after a while. The vocabulary she uses leads the reader to suspect M.S. Boyd has learned just enough psychobabble through therapy to use for explaining many of the poor choices she had made. I do not know if "low self esteem" really does explain much of her actions; but therapeutic terms often can act as detours around serious thinking. Indeed, some serious thinking seems to be lacking in many of Boyd's reflections.

In discussing her courtship and marriage to George Harrison, Ms Boyd is not shy to admit that in spite of everything George was the love of her life. Nevertheless, I found myself wanting more about her life with this quixotic man. For a man who by all accounts was so comfortable with himself, why could he be such an absolute jerk at times? How could one focused on the transcendent turn to be so mean with those who meant the most to him? Perhaps, George was simply a mystery even to those closest to him.

By Boyd's testimony, Harrison was less than candid about their past relationship after their divorce. Harrison claimed that the marriage that was stupid, meant little, and never should have happened anyway. He also maintained that his best song, "Something", was not written about Patty. He also stated several times that losing Patty meant nothing to him. In fact, Boyd is confident that George knew that she was the love of his life as well. Even among his infidelities, he was deeply in love with her and when he lost her it completely tore him up. By her written account, when Boyd returned to their home at Friar Park to gather up her things and move in with Eric Clapton, George was visibly shaken and destroyed. Years later, Boyd relates that they met once again at an airport. George had been remarried to Olivia Trinidad Arias while she herself was solidly attached to Clapton. By her account, in a particular instant during their polite meeting, she saw that George was still deeply in love with her. She, too, realized that she loved Harrison even then. The magic was still there. As Boyd herself matured and learned to stand on her own feet, she felt that she shouldn't have left George. Instead, she should have stood up and fought for their marriage.

So who was telling the truth? Harrison with his professed indifference? Or Boyd's testimony of mutual emotional devastation? I am far more inclined to take Boyd's account than that of Harrison's. There are a few songs Harrison wrote at the time that seemed to betray his true feelings of loss. (Especially his "So Sad (No Love of His Own)" recorded for Alvin Lee's ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM solo album). Is Boyd's perception that both she and Harrison still loved each other when they met at the airport reliable? Again, I think Boyd is fairly trustworthy here.

If Harrison was the fire, Clapton was the fire. As her marriage to Harrison began its downward spiral, Clapton pleaded Boyd to leave George and join him. She resisted but another affair by Harrison pushed her over the edge. She fell in with Clapton and he began a long torment vacillating from passionate love to emotional cruelty. When she was away from him, Clapton was enchanting. When she was safely his, he could be indifferent or abusive. One of the major demons in Clapton's life was alcohol and it drove his life with Boyd suffering his drunken mistreatment. The picture Boyd paints of Clapton is not pretty and is very difficult to square with the hero worship laid at his feet. Finally, after fathering a child with another woman, Ms Boyd made the clean break. The reader, however, is left wondering why she tolerated Clapton's serial infidelities so long--especially given her awareness of what goes on among rock musicians on the road.

One walks away from this book wondering why both George Harrison and Eric Clapton remained good friends after the high drama of Boyd leaving one for the other. It being a "musician thing" as some suggest doesn't cut it. Perhaps because it is more common than we think or she herself has no insight to share on this score, Ms Boyd does not venture explaining the bond between her two husbands.

Neither do we get beyond more than scratching the bare surface the Beatles as a band or as individuals. Given the very long bookshelf of books about the Beatles by those who knew them and (more frequently) those who never met them. I would have liked to have read the perspective of one of the wives who was there from Beatlemania until the breakup. Cynthia Lennon has done so to a degree. Unfortunately, Linda McCartney and Maureen Starkey died from cancer. Yoko Ono is more interested in guarding John Lennon's memory--especially wanting to have the public see their relationship in the best light. (By and large, most of the public still believe Yoko broke up the band. Not a few within the Beatle's circle of friends have suggested there was something pathological about John and Yoko's relationship.) This leaves Ms Boyd. It may be a biographer is required to draw this out of her.

Lastly, Ms Boyd tells us that after all these difficult years she finally found herself and took responsibility for her own life. How did this come about? We get a hint that becoming a professional photographer played a role in this; but we learn next to nothing about Patty the photographer.

So we add Ms Boyd's manuscript to the burgeoning library about the Beatles. Ms Boyd's writing in clear if only workman like. Compared to Eric Clapton's own autobiography, Patty's is less dynamic--and that is saying something. All the names and parties distract from what should have been the focus of the book: Harrison, Clapton and Patty Boyd. If you have read more than a few books about the Beatles, some of the chronology of events seems a bit off. Still, you can't help liking Patty Boyd. She made some bad decisions in her life; but I think it is fair to say that none of the Beatles and their circles escaped making a long series of poor choices in that pressure cooker few will ever experience.

This book was a lot of name dropping which I found annoying seeing as I didn't know most of the names she mentioned. I loved the history with the Beatles and Eric Clapton the most. Learning that Patti was the muse for some of the greatest love songs of all time like "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton and "Something" written by George Harrison. I almost feel like Patti has repeated all the wrong patterns without learning any lessons life tried to teach her. She always relied on her ex-husbands to support her financially and had no real world experience. I understand being married to a superstar is a whirlwind, however, let's get realistic, which I feel Patti never did. A quick read. I skimmed a lot of parts that babbled about supermodels and photo shoots. She skimmed over drug usage...I felt she could have elaborated more on those moments/feelings, which would have connected her to more of her audience bc most of us share that experience or have had that experience. Writing style was not elegant, sort of choppy.

I thought that this book was very interesting. I especially found it interesting that even though she did not stay married to him, she, until the day he died, always loved George Harrison.

I was so excited to read this book. I have always been so interested to learn about her life. It was a good book like I said, worth the read. But in no ways a GREAT book.
I have been a huge Eric Clapton fan for years and in this book he came across like a total peice of work. I wasnt clear on why she would ever leave George for him? Ya he wrote her some sweet poetic letters and wrote songs for her but other then that he seems like a constant nightmare. I did enjoy reading the book just felt like something was missing.

HUGE fan of George Harrison my whole life, so I was dying to read from this woman's point of view. It was interesting to read (especially about Eric Clapton--I always pictured him as such a saint), but it was very confusing most of the time. She rarely put dates in here, a lot of events were way out of order (it's 1974, no wait, we're back in '68), and I still couldn't help but feel she was/is a bit spoiled? I don't want to hear her complain about how broke she was and how little they each gave her (she gave up modeling pretty early so had no job of her own) and then hear about her travels all over the exotic locations of the world? But again, interesting to hear things from her perspective...

Poor girl.

The words 'door' and 'mat' spring to mind.

That's all I have to say.

This book is terrible. I thought this book would be a little more detailed about the private life's of Eric and George and their music. Instead, it reads like a chronology of events with all relevant sections deleted. These musicians played poker with little girls' life's and, when they grew tired of the flavor of the month, they switched off. Pattie and her friends were objects that were passed around and when everyone was done, they were replaced by the next round of young beautiful girls. Why would you marry a man that sends his best friend to ask you??? I feel sorry for Pattie Boyd. I believe she thinks she was really loved and that all of the songs she quotes in her book were about her. Eric Clapton seems to need the youngest and the prettiest, Pattie just happened to be there when he was ready to switch. I do not think her life was glamorous at all, I think it was empty and sad. Pattie's life was spent with some incredible people but, there was no soul connection with any of them. It was all surface and show. Pattie never knew the heart of either of these men, she was an object and that is all she was. This book is poorly written and lacks any depth, character, or substance and is proof that Ms. Boyd did not know the depth of these men. Don't waste your time.