Glamour girl Katie Price is a role model to 1,000 city fans

MODEL Katie Price was greeted by more than 1,000 screaming fans as she arrived for her book-signing in Derby yesterday – and no-one was more delighted than Charlotte McKenna.

The city hair salon owner, who idolises the glamorous star, was given the chance to be first in the queue outside the event in the Westfield Centre after managers found out she was such a big fan of the celebrity.

And she said the “surreal” meeting had been an amazing experience.

Ms Price arrived at 4pm wearing a white dress and two-tone belt, and shook hands with Miss McKenna while the pair had their photographs taken.

The 30-year-old celebrity, who rose to fame under her model name Jordan, said she was pleased to see so many people at the event and promised to sign every copy of her new novel, Angel Uncovered.

She said: “I love Derby. We've had good turnouts everywhere I've been, so it's great.

“I'll be coming back in the first week of September to do more promotional work and I'm looking forward to it.”

Miss McKenna, 29, of Littleover, said her favourite celebrity had looked just as beautiful as she had expected.

She said: “It was unbelievable. She's so small and her legs are so tiny.

“I thought she looked beautiful but she always does. It's surreal to see someone like that in the flesh.”

Miss McKenna, who co-owns Decadence Hair and Beauty, in Stenson Road, Derby, and has two children, Ruby eight, and Leo, five, said she had looked up to Ms Price since the 1990s.

She said: “I like everything about her, especially the way she dresses.

“I have children as well and I am a working mum like her. I just try to look glamorous like she does. I think she is a good role model for women. I like the way she is so driven and career-minded but is still a great mum.

“She's living the dream. Her life is like a fairytale.

“Everyone grows up reading Cinderella and she is like that.”

Miss McKenna said the chance to meet Ms Price had come about during a chance conversation with a regular salon customer from Westfield's staff.

She said: “I told them I was Katie Price's biggest fan and they said they might be able to do something for me.”

Westfield centre manager Janine Bone said Ms Price –who was without husband Peter Andre – had managed to sign every fan's book.

She said: “WH Smith sold out of copies of Angel Uncovered. We didn't know how many people would come, to be honest. The turnout has been amazing.”

Angel Uncovered, Ms Price's seventh book, is a novel which features a central character called Angel Summer – a successful glamour model.

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