Fans queue for hours to meet Cliff

4:38pm Friday 5th September 2008

At least 1,000 Cliff Richard fans queued for up to seven hours for the chance to get the bachelor boy's signature on Friday.

The singer was signing copies of his autobiography, My Life, My Way, at the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex.

Queues began forming at 5am, although one fan had been waiting in line since 8pm on Thursday.

Sir Cliff arrived in a glass lift looking dapper in a polka-dot shirt and suit jacket.

Gill Hart, 55, from Norfolk, said: "I left home at 3.30am just to be here, I love him. I saw him in Butlin's as a little girl and I said 'Mummy, I love that man' and I've been a fan ever since."

Daphne Creer, 59, from Rochester, Kent, said: "When he sings, it is like he is just singing to me. He's lived a good life and that's all that matters."

Kirstie Law, 21, from Inverness, said: "I travelled down specially and I was here at 4am. Some people think it's funny that I'm so young, but he's just a great singer. I can't believe I've met him."

In the book Sir Cliff describes his life with the man he calls his "companion", former Catholic priest Father John McElynn.

He wrote: "He has also become a companion, which is great because I don't like living alone, even now."

He added: "As for my sexuality, I am sick to death of the media's speculation about it. What business is it of anyone else's what any of us are as individuals? I don't think my fans would care either way."

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