The extreme factor

Autobiography: It was Michael Parkinson who first suggested that Sharon Osbourne, star of reality TV hit shows The Osbournes and X Factor, should write a book about her life. Clever old Parky.

Whatever your views on reality television it would be hard to deny that Sharon Osbourne - mother, wife, deal breaker, rock matriarch and survivor - has led an extraordinary life. It's not for nothing that this book is called Extreme.

Some things you may already know about Sharon Osbourne through the MTV programme which documented her family. She is married to heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne. Together they have three children, Jack, Aimee and Kelly. She loves dogs, especially small, fluffy ones. She contracted colon cancer and allowed the MTV cameras to stay in their Hollywood home while she went through the gruelling treatment for her illness.

For the past few years the family's life has been lived through a lens - her husband's near fatal accident on a quad bike, the addiction problems of her son Jack and daughter Kelly were public property. Rabid Osbourne spotters may even know that Louis, one of Ozzy's two children from his first marriage, married an Irish woman, Louise, in Kinnitty Castle a couple of years ago.

But however diverting the family members' lives in the present have proved for some of us, the story of how Sharon Osbourne got where she is today is truly unputdownable. Born in London in 1953, Sharon's life as the youngest daughter of Don Arden, the music industry's answer to his mates, the Krays, was never dull. She got used to being patted on the head by the likes of Gene Vincent, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, who her father, a powerful music promoter, brought over from the US to play around Britain. (Arden turned down an opportunity to manage The Beatles believing British rock music would never catch on).

She got used to distracting the bailiffs who came regularly to their Maida Vale flat to repossess the trappings of her father's "smoke and mirrors" wealth. She got used to witnessing her father's violent behaviour whenever he was crossed by music industry cronies, which was often. Meanwhile, her mother was distant and rarely showed affection to her or her brother, David, or their half-siblings, Dixie and Richard. Sharon, who is brutally honest about everything, including a teenage abortion and her lifelong problems with her weight, followed her father into his business. She spent much of the next two decades signing forms on properties and tax returns so that her father's dodgy deals could never be traced back to him.

Birmingham rock band Black Sabbath, whose lead singer was Ozzy Osbourne, were one of her father's musical cash cows. Sharon acted as promoter for her father and toured with the band, eventually falling in love with Ozzy, who was married to someone else. After his divorce the couple married and shortly after that they had a spectacular falling out with Sharon's family, who tried to convince Ozzy to leave Sharon, claiming she was "insane" and "poison". Estranged from Arden, the couple had to start again with virtually no resources but with Sharon in charge of business they managed to claw their way back to the top.

This journey was not without some incident. Ozzy may have been her soulmate but he was also an alcoholic and drug addict who, Sharon recalls, would often force her into sex. The couple often had violent rows where she gave as good as she got, having learnt well from Don Arden. Her husband was habitually unfaithful and the day she gave birth to Jack, Ozzy was in bed with their nanny. His drink- and drug-fuelled antics culminated in an attempt to strangle her in their London home. She says her love for him, her belief that he loved her and her devotion to their three children were the reasons she stuck around when most women would have fled.

Later, when his behaviour settled down, she went through an incredible physical transformation herself. She had surgery on her stomach to reduce her appetite and having lost several stone underwent plastic surgery on almost every part of her body.

There followed the MTV programme which changed the lives of the whole family forever and the X Factor talent show, which allowed her to start paying back a $2 million (€1.6 million) tax bill, the legacy of one of the last pieces of paper she ever signed for her father.

Mention must be made of Osbourne's ghostwriter, Penelope Dening, who brings her gift as a storyteller to the astonishing tale of this unlikely contemporary heroine.

Róisin Ingle is an Irish Times journalist. Her book, Pieces of Me, was published last month by Hodder Headline

Sharon Osbourne Extreme: My Autobiography By Sharon Osbourne, with Penelope Dening. Time Warner, 372pp. £11.99