From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 8th, 2008
In Milwaukee, Carole E. Barrowman is known as an English professor at Alverno College and a freelance reviewer for the Journal Sentinel. But in England, she has made a splash of another sort. Readers have mobbed her at bookstore signings of her new book, "Anything Goes," and set it on bestseller charts there.
Barrowman tells the story of "Torchwood" star John Barrowman - yes, her brother - who smokes television screens across the Atlantic and keeps fans calling for more. With the help of her brother, Carole Barrowman easily and charmingly takes readers through her brother's early life, from his childhood in Glasgow to his American adolescence and his return to his native England. The memoir explores both John Barrowman's professional and personal lives, in the process showing how one boy achieved his dream.
His early successes on stages here, his coming out to his family, his return to England, his roles in movies such as "The Producers" and "De-Lovely," his West End achievements, and his relationship with long-term partner Scott Gill are all related with insight and honesty. "Torchwood" is a "Doctor Who" spinoff that won a best drama BAFTA.
Carole Barrowman will read from the memoir, which is also being released in the U.S. Carole was born and raised in a small town just outside of Glasgow, Scotland, and immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1970s with her parents and siblings. "Anything Goes" is her first book.
- Geeta Sharma Jensen (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Book Editor)