Book description
As Britain's most successful and high profile make-up artist, for the
past 15 years Gary Cockerill has glossed the lips, curled the lashes and
shared the secrets of the famous and fabulous.
With his unique style of super-sexy, uber-glamorous make-up, Gary has
been responsible for helping to launch the careers and keep the secrets
of a host of famous names, including his best friend Katie Price.
But behind the glitz and glamour is a heart-warming and at times
hilarious story of how a former Yorkshire coal miner with no training or
contacts fought his way up to become the celebrity world's make-up
artist of choice. In From Coal Dust to Star Dust, Gary reveals how a job
spray-painting the faces of shop mannequins in a grimy West London
factory led him to America and a hair-raising stint working with the
superstars of the adult film industry. He explains how he landed his
first celebrity client and within a few years was back in Los Angeles
again, only this time working with true Hollywood movie legends. Today,
with a star-studded client list that reads like a copy of Vanity Fair
magazine, Gary has become a loyal friend and confidante to many of his
regular clients. In his role at the heart of the celebrity circus, he
reveals what it was like to have a ringside seat for some of the most
notorious tabloid scandals of the Noughties.
Running alongside Gary's rise to fame is his candid and moving account
of coming to terms with his sexuality and meeting his first boyfriend -
now husband, Phil Turner - while in the middle of planning a wedding to
his glamour model fiancée Tracey. He also lays bare his own struggles
with shopping addiction, his dabbles with drugs and how his newfound
celebrity lifestyle threatened to spiral out of control and destroy
everything he had worked for.
Gary's fairytale journey from the mines of Doncaster to the VIP rooms
of London and LA is a moving and funny tale in the mould of Billy Elliot
- if, that is, Billy ended up pole-dancing in a strip joint at the start
of Act Two. Entertainingly gossipy but never bitchy or cruel, Coal Dust
to Stardust will be a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary
celebrity culture.
