Britney's mom Lynne's book is due to hit the shelves first. We can't reasonably expect it to be free from some kind of bias, since anything other than an affectionate account would be a total betrayal. We can probably place our trust in the veracity of the parts of the story where Lynne speaks from the point of view of her personal involvement. However, if she attempts to describe what happened over the last two years or so, we can't be so sure. Even Britney's own recollections are likely to be subject to some confusion and any other sources are going to be hearsay, or tainted by people's loyalties to/hatred for Sam, Kevin and Adnan.

Then we have Ian Halperin's book - which has yet to find a publisher. Although he's an established investigative reporter, the excerpts from the proposed book that I've read so far have not impressed me. He posed as a photographer, but I'm not entirely sure how much a photographer - even an investigative reporter posing as a photographer - could REALLY find out about Britney. Only Adnan seemed to get really close to her. Or did Sam sell his memoirs to Halperin? I have my doubts about whether a lot of this isn't just more speculation, gossip and hearsay. Almost everything we've seen so far could have been "borrowed" from stories in the National Enquirer.

But I'm not about to dismiss everything he says. I have always felt that Britney was and is probably the most troubled, insecure person I have ever seen in showbiz. Never mind all the recent allegations about drug-taking and various mental illnesses, she has been on a very obvious spiritual quest for as long as we've known her... apparently always trying to find herself but never really succeeding. She has admitted in public to being ill-suited to showbiz and has gone through frequent bouts of self-loathing. She seems, more than any other star, to see her public persona as something totally separate, and different, from herself.

Becoming a performer was a thing that happened in a more "innocent" phase of her life, before she was fed the poison of self-consciousness. When you're just a new, breakthrough star you're just "doing your thing" before you start to find out what everybody's saying about you then you start to ask yourself "Is it true? Is this really how I am? Have I been deluding myself all along?" It was like what happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden "before the fall", and the loss of innocence. It's too late now. I don't think that even if she retired from showbiz she would ever be free from her lifelong struggle with herself, but having the spotlight constantly on her can't help.

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