Walking back to happiness - Helen Shapiro

She was the youngest girl to top the bill at the London Palladium, the teenybopper who had The Beatles among her supporting acts. Her number one hits "Don't Treat Me Like a Child" and "Walking Back to Happiness" were quintessential 1960s records. But at 19 she'd been and gone.;In 1979 her career began to take off again when she landed the part of Nancy in the West End production of "Oliver". She tried singing jazz, teamed up with veteran trumpeter and bandleader Humphrey Littleton and has not been without work since.;In 1987, through the influence of her musical director Bob Cranham, and the help of Stan Telchin's book "Betrayed", she accepted the Christian faith. Wanting to remain faithful to her Jewish lineage, however, she became a Messianic Jewess - one who accepts Jesus as the Messiah. Helen now combines her secular work with gospel recording and performing. Wendy Green is the author of "Getting Things Done: A Biography of General Eva Burrows", "The Ebony Cross" (with Io Smith), "Somebody I Love Has Died" and "Raped" (with Jill Saward).