Pete: My Journey with Tourette’s

by PeteBennett (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.42

  When Pete Bennett exploded into the Big Brother house, and into everyone's living rooms, he instantly became an icon. Weird, unpredictable, involuntarily foul-mouthed, beautiful and endlessly entertaining, from day one he was the favourite to win. As a small, sensitive boy, Pete struggled with the bullies and gangs of thugs in some of the hardest housing estates and schools in South London. Despite a tough start, he showed prodigious creative talents in art, music and performance. When Tourette's exploded in his head at puberty, he lost control of his mouth, his body and his face. Unable to finish his education or follow any normal career path, he was led to living the high life and low life on the streets of Brighton. He cheerfully experimented with hard drugs and perverse sexuality, happy to find himself in a world where being beautiful and weird made you a star, not a victim. After witnessing the death of his close friend, he came crashing down to earth. As he battled on with the effects of depression and drug addiction, poverty and Tourette's, a visionary trip to heaven convinced him that the only way he could survive and save his family from penury was by winning Big Brother. After a euphoric victory in August 2006, he is now one of the most famous faces and voices in the country.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $3.42

  W**kers! Cheese! Eeezamanna! Pete Bennett, the 24-year-old Tourette's sufferer who shot to fame as winner of Big Brother 7, stole the nation's heart with his outrageous, loveable nature. Pete's incredible autobiography reveals what the tabloids didn't see. His story will make you cry, have you in stitches, and inspire you with its amazing honesty. Suffering with Tourette's Syndrome since the age of five, Pete was only properly diagnosed at 14. Here he talks openly about his agony growing up with Tourette's, and how he used humour and his musical ability to cope with his frightening attacks. Pete reveals his true feelings about his dad abandoning him when he was six, and his close relationship with his mother, Anne. Pete shares intimate details about his escape into wild sex parties, the horrific death of his best friend, and his thoughts of suicide until Big Brother 'saved his life'. From the moment Pete decided to enter Big Brother so his mum wouldn't have to work in a fast food chain, he had the entire nation glued to their TV screens. But beneath his quirky and hilarious antics, it was Pete's refreshing innocence and lack of fame-seeking that made him the most popular (and fancied) housemate Big Brother has ever seen. Heart-rending and moving, hilarious and outrageous, Pete's story is an unique insight into a truly inspiring individual.