So George Best walks into a pub ...' Howls of laughter drown out the punch line, and for the first time since I heard the news of his death I smile. George would have liked that one.
2004. A Sunday in early August. Celia Walden, a young reporter, receives an unusual phone call from her editor. She is to drop everything, travel immediately to Malta, track down a legendary footballer and global superstar and keep him away from the press. But George Best, a notorious alcoholic and party animal who just had a liver transplant and been left by his wife - again - isn't the easiest man to find ... and when Celia does discover him in an Irish bar, drinking countless white wine spritzers, he isn't exactly delighted to see her.
But the unlikely friendship that develops between George and Celia - in what transpired to be the final summer of George's life - reveals an intelligent, funny, wild and complex human being, a man who loved reading thrillers, was a member of MENSA, worshipped women, and whose extraordinary life had played out under the constant glare of the media spotlight.
Celia, or 'Trouble' as he liked to call her, stays with George day and night for months. She witnesses drunken brawls, life inside a rehabilitation clinic, his relationships with women and their families, and hears his story; from his glory days at Manchester United, to his notorious womanising and partying, his tumultuous marriage to Alex and, finally, devastatingly, his crippling addiction to alcohol.
Babysitting George is a tender and beautifully written account of a unique relationship between a young journalist and a dying star. It questions the cold, exploitative nature of tabloid journalism, the terrifying, all-consuming nature of addiction and the deeply humane, implausible friendships that can change one's life forever.
