Peter Freestone was Freddie Mercury's Personal Assistant for the last 12
years of his life. He lived with Mercury in London, Munich and New York,
and he was with him when he died.
In this book, the most intimate account of Mercury's life ever written,
he reveals the truth behind the scandalous rumours, the outrageous
lifestyle and Mercury's relationships with men, women and the other
members of Queen.
From the famous names - including Elton John, Kenny Everett, Elizabeth
Taylor and Rod Stewart - to the shadowy army of lovers, fixers and
hangers-on, Peter Freestone saw them all play their part in the
tragi-comedy that was Freddie Mercury's life.
Freestone lived with Mercury in Europe and America for over a decade.
From the East 50s apartment in New York to Kensington Lodge, the house
in London where Mercury died - not to mention innumerable international
hotel rooms and apartments in between - Freestone was always on hand to
serve and protect the man he had first met in the Biba department store
in the early 1970s. Then, Queen was a largely unknown band. Soon it
would be the most glitzy of glam rock bands. Freestone saw the fame
arrive and with it the generosity, the excess, and the celebrity friends
who came and went.
"I was chief cook and bottle washer, waiter, butler, valet, secretary,
amanuensis, cleaner, baby-sitter... and agony aunt," he writes. "I
shopped for him both at supermarkets and art markets, I travelled the
world with him, I was with him at the highs and came through the lows
with him. I saw the creative juices flow and I also saw the frustration
when life wasn't going well. I acted as his bodyguard when needed and in
the end, of course, I was one of his nurses."
Freestone's best-selling account of a talented and extravagant star's
life and death is compelling, entertaining and ultimately, very
touching.
