Beauty Queens, Frogs and Princes

By Mandy Shires

Growing up in Yorkshire within an idyllic middle-class family, two parents and a younger sister, our life together and adventures, our emigration to Africa and Australia, 10 schools in various regions and countries along the way.

Then came my success, winning the Miss UK contest and runner up to Miss World in 1985, which was aired on ITV, primetime and watched by millions of viewers, that’s when the fun really started.

The press, the public, appearances, TV shows, celebrities, drugs, my move to South Africa, marriage, divorce, modelling, boyfriends, mental abuse, violence, meeting my daughters’ father, the birth of our beautiful baby and the circumstances which changed the course of my life forever, motherhood, affairs, blackmail, private detectives, being a single parent, millionaires, and conmen to mention a few. 

The dating scene, kissing many frogs and my eventual happiness, finding love, and settling down after what seemed like a lifetime of searching.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Dec 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398456952

Mandy Shires

Mandy was born in the UK but has resided throughout her life in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), South Africa and Australia as well as many parts of the UK. She took part in Miss UK and Miss World in 1985, winning the title of Miss UK and gaining second place in the Miss World pageant. She modelled for 15 years of her life before retiring when her daughter was born. Mandy’s life has been far from the life expected of a beauty queen with many a roller coaster ride and extreme experiences along the way.

Book preview

About the Author

Mandy was born in the UK but has resided throughout her life in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), South Africa and Australia as well as many parts of the UK. She took part in Miss UK and Miss World in 1985, winning the title of Miss UK and gaining second place in the Miss World pageant. She modelled for 15 years of her life before retiring when her daughter was born. Mandy’s life has been far from the life expected of a beauty queen with many a roller coaster ride and extreme experiences along the way.

Dedication

My book is dedicated to my beautiful daughter Talia, who gave me purpose to keep going and of course my parents for being there throughout my journey.

Copyright Information ©

Mandy Shires 2022

The right of Mandy Shires to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398456945 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398456952 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

Thank you to my partner, Steve, for being my sounding board throughout the whole process.

Chapter 1

If you are sitting comfortably, then I shall begin. I was born in January 1966, at the very idyllic Four Gables Maternity Home in Horsforth, on the outskirts of Leeds in the beautiful ‘God’s own County’ of Yorkshire. Four Gables had actually, many years prior to my birth, been a home for single pregnant mothers, of which I must point out straight away my mother was not. The nurses there said that they always knew my cry from all the other baby cries there as it wasn’t, as you would think, the loudest, but it was definitely the deepest. I was born to young parents of just 22 and 24, which I suppose then was more normal than it seems nowadays. My father was in finance and my mother was a hairdresser at one of the biggest salons in Leeds at that time. As a baby, I remember my mother telling me that she always had to move me around the room because I would become bored if in one place for any length of time. I think because of this, I took it upon myself to walk at the tender age of ten months. I also remember my father telling me, during my teenage years, later on. That at that point, which was when I was their firstborn and the only child. That he loved me even more than my mother. This must have been a hell of a lot as my mother was and has always been and always will be everything to him. I went to a lot of first schools as a child. My earliest first school was in Leeds, a school called Waterloo in the suburb of Pudsey on the outskirts of Leeds. I remember very little of this school, but I do remember my mother telling me how we lived on a very steep hill and by the age of only 18 months, I was very independent and brave, fearless, in fact, a total tomboy. My mother would look out of the window to see me playing with friends in the safe cul-de-sac where we lived at that time, often seeing me whizzing by on my toddler coaster from the top of the hill to the bottom. A toddler coaster was a sort of four-wheel small plastic bike type mobile for little people before getting a real bike. She would say, I used to put the fear of God in her! I was always the leader of the gang of friends I had, whatever the age gap was between us. I was always trying to organise people and sort things out, always busy doing something. Some people would say bossy Child others would say a natural-born leader. My mother always mentions an incident that happened one day whilst we were out shopping as a family in Leeds, my mother and I with my sister in a pram at the time. I think I was about three and walking by myself, of course, in front of the pram. We were in Lewis’, which was a major department store in our area. We were just about to take the lift to one of the other floors. We had called it as you do by pressing the button and then waiting for its arrival. The doors to the lift, which were the old-fashioned metal trellis type fold back doors opened in front of us, and I confidently walked in. Unfortunately, without there being enough time before the doors closed for my mother to step in with the pram. So off I went on my own, three years old in the lift all alone. My mother by quick-thinking asked a passer-by to hang on to my sister as she ran up the stairs to the next floor to press the button hoping the lift would stop there. To her relief, the doors opened and out I walked as calm as ever into her arms as if nothing had happened and then we returned quickly to collect my sister. After my brief experience at Waterloo first school, my schooling was then followed by another brief period at Green Lane first school whilst staying with grandparents in Leeds after we had sold our house before our emigration to Rhodesia. I remember the first day at Green Lane quite clearly. I remember not being a very happy bunny to be left there and being comforted by the teacher who gave me my free bottle of milk the children used to be given at that time earlier than she was meant to, it’s funny what little things you remember from childhood really.

Chapter 2

My dad’s choice to take us all off to Africa was to do with the fact his brother who was nine years older than him had lived there since he was 19 and the lifestyle was just everything anyone could want really. Mum and Dad were in their late twenties by now, I was five years old and my sister was three. Dad had been a couple of months before on a three-week holiday to find work and start the wheels in motion. We had a complete family gathering before we were due to leave. I remember having my autograph book at the ready, which I had taken on my last day of school for my friends to be able to sign. We hired a car to drive to Southampton then begin the sail to Capetown. We were taking my grandma on my dad’s side along with us, as she was going to live out there as well. My paternal grandad was not with us anymore having died from cancer a couple of years earlier. All I remember from that journey as a child was that it was a massive adventure we were going on. The cruise across the sea on the Edinburgh Castle was about two weeks long and filled with all sorts of parties and celebrations, children’s sports days, fancy dress and many other amazing things for a three and five-year-old to be involved in. I do remember the fancy dress and being dressed as a flower, my mum had made me a large face type mask with all these gigantic petals coming off it around my face. I also have fond memories of the dining arrangements on board as the children always ate first and altogether in the big restaurant. The children were given these beautiful Disney menus at the table every night and I kept each one every night it was given to me and added it to my collection. After this, the children were then put to bed for the adults to have their time in the evening to eat, drink and party. Whilst this was going on, all the cabins were patrolled by members of staff, to make sure the children were all okay as an extra security procedure. As we got closer and closer to Africa the weather got warmer and warmer even though it was October, when we set sail. This was also reflected in the staff’s uniform because as soon as the weather became warmer, they went from their dark uniform to a completely white one, which looked amazingly smart and dapper and I preferred it to be honest. The day soon came for the Crossing of the equator which was celebrated massively by all onboard with all sorts of antics. On the day of this celebration, so-called prisoners were taken including my dad. They were all chased, captured and sat down on chairs at the side of the pool facing away from it, they were then splattered with slime and eggs and all sorts of weird and wonderful things before being tipped backwards into the pool. All the kids had to line up and meet King Neptune who would put slime on our cheeks to mark the crossing. I remember this all being rounded off with the parents fighting back and it then becoming one big food throwing party. At the end of this, all the kids received certificates to mark the occasion. We arrived in Capetown to rain ironically, this was not what we expected to be greeted with at all. The beautiful view of Table Mountain was being somewhat masked by the rain that was falling fast and furious from the African skies. We were being greeted when the ship was docked by my auntie who had travelled down by train from Salisbury, where she lived with my uncle and my two cousins. She was in fact driving one of the brand-new Ford Capris that we had shipped over from the UK to eventually sell, back up to Salisbury for us. My Auntie took the first car, which was white as it was offloaded first and started the 2517 kilometre (1571 miles) drive north with my grandma as co-pilot. We on the other hand had to stay another night on the docked ship for the other car to be offloaded for us as a family to drive and do the same. The drive up from Capetown for us in the unusually mustard coloured Ford Capris named Daytona yellow, which apparently was very sought after at the time, was not as straightforward as my aunties. Unfortunately, the gearbox seized up about 40 miles south of Kimberley in the middle of nowhere during a violent electric thunderstorm. We then had to drive in first gear 40 miles to Kimberley diamond mine where we were stuck for four days whilst the gearbox was being fixed. The drive from Capetown to Salisbury took about two days on top of this. We eventually arrived at my father’s brother in Mount Pleasant in a suburb of Salisbury. Unfortunately, and very disappointing for my father, as he very much looked up to his elder brother and had not seen him in ages but he was on duty as he was a captain in the Rhodesian air force at the time and only arrived back a week after our arrival. My mum’s feelings at this time were very different, the whole loss of her family in the UK was now becoming real. Communication then was not as easy as it is now and just a simple call was very much an expense so was never made. She sent a telegram to tell them we had arrived safely. Calls were very expensive so just not used at all as a form of communication, it was just not an option ever for us. Letters were sent for communication with the family in the UK and took about a week to arrive so there were periods of time just void of that communication my mother especially needed. We stayed with my uncle and aunt for five months. During that time, we managed to see more of Africa. We visited places such as Balancing Rocks at Epworth, Mermaids pool, Nyangombe Falls in Nyanga and Chirundu which was a border post between Rhodesia and Zambia. We were visiting a friend who was a customs officer there at the time and stayed with him and his wife at their house. During this stay, I do remember one night setting up an old white sheet on a line between two trees in the bush to enable us to watch a film from a projector whilst listening to the sound of the hippos in the background living in the Zambezi River which was close by. It was all very surreal as you can imagine, how often does that happen in a person’s lifetime. We searched Salisbury and its suburbs for a plot of land to be able to build our new home as well as looking for ideas for the design of the house. We found the plot in Greencroft which was a nice quiet suburb located on the outskirts of Salisbury. We also found a beautiful Spanish style house to draw ideas and plans from. My father’s uncle drew up the final plans and as both uncles had building businesses out there, they began to build for us. Our house was perfect when finished, inside and out. It was built on an acre of land with room to run, play and hide. The gardens obviously still had to be planted so initially, it was an acre of earth, no grass, plants, flowers or trees. We had servants at the time as all white people in Rhodesia did, Phineas, who was our amazing housekeeper and brilliant cook and Jackson, who was the gardener. Phineas was a Mashona originally from Rhodesia and Jackson was from Malawi. They were good people and looked after us very well as we did them. They loved working for my parents as my parents were very fair and went over and above to make their lives as comfortable as possible, whilst keeping within the law of course. I remember one day the authorities came knocking at our door explaining that they were carrying out the regular checks to make sure all house owners only had the authorised two servants on their land. That very day Dad had allowed Phineas’ and Jackson’s wives to come and visit them as you can imagine because the wives lived off-site and generally in the townships. They did not really get to see their husbands as often as they might like. It was a very rare thing for them to spend time together. Luckily Phineas overheard the conversation at the door between my father and the authorities and quickly dashed to their quarters, which were very small, simple and looked like English toilet blocks. Which were located at the back of the garden to warn Jackson and the wives what was happening and that they had to get off the land immediately. He and Jackson managed to push their wives over the high walls surrounding the house before being discovered. If they had been, then my father would have been fined a large amount and given a warning because of this so-called crime. I started school not long after we moved into the new house. My school was called Hallingbury, it was local and only about 300 yards from the house, so Mum would walk me there every day and drop me off. I remember the fabulous uniform I used to wear and the small leather briefcase I carried. I felt so important. Days there were spent obviously learning but the playtimes playing kiss catch on the fields. Sports days were always good as the weather was always sunny and warm. The days always came to an abrupt end because the sun would go down at six o’clock every night without fail. There was always 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. My fifth birthday party was very different to how it used to be in the UK, as it was usually very miserable there in cold January, very much the opposite was true in Africa. We took full advantage of the acre of green grass available when playing