First Madonna did it and now Kylie's doing it. Two of the world's best knownpop divashave beenbranching out. Instead of performing concerts inpacked stadiumsaround the world and recording¹ multi-million selling albums, they haveturned their attention tothe more gentle world of children's publishing.

Madonna's book "The English Roses" came out in 2003 and now Kylie Minogue's novel "The Showgirl Princess", a story about one girl's journey tostardom, has just beenpublished.

Both women are already famous for beingmulti-talented. Both are well-known world-wide for their singing, dancing and acting² but now it's their writing skills that they arekeen to share with the rest of us.

Kylie began acting on Australian TV when she was 11 years old but it was her role as the teenage "Charlene" in thesoap opera"Neighbours" that reallyput her on the international map.

Heron-screenboyfriend (played by Jason Donovan) in "Neighbours" became heroff-screenlove and when the two of them recorded theduet"Especially for You" in 1989 it seemed that romance³, pop music and success were all Kylie'sfor the taking.

16 years laterher charmed⁴ life was shatteredwith the news that she hadbreast cancer. Her world tour wascancelledand sheunderwent surgeryin May 2005.

It was while she was recovering from her breast cancer treatment that she wrote "The Showgirl Princess". She said it was "therapeuticto be working on something" while she wasrecuperating.

Madonna said one of the reasons for writing "The English Roses" was that she wanted to do something for her children. Kylie's reason is rather different. She admits the idea of the book came from her actor boyfriend Oliver Martinez but that she has always had an interest in writing. "Way back when I was in primary school" she said, "I used to do little drawings and stories. My dad always said that one day I'd write a children's book".

Kylie Minogue is due to start her next tour in Australia in November 2006.