THE wife of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been in the limelight as much as her husband himself, intriguing many Malaysians.

It is obviously due to this that a biography-cum-coffee table book about her, smattered with Quranic verses, was written by Siti Rohayah Attan and Noraini Abd Razak. Indeed, throughout the book, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor comes across as someone worthy of being noticed.

In the beautifully-bound hardcover, simply titled Rosmah Mansor, Rosmah's early life is described in detail.

From her birth in Kuala Pilah to her schooling days in Tunku Kurshiah, the description is minute and we get to know of her very strict father and her gang of friends.

And while her father is portrayed as an extremely strict man, her mother is seen as an extremely obedient wife, not daring to defy her husband, no matter what.

Once, when young Rosmah stubbornly refused to change her dress and wore what she wanted, she was severely beaten by her father with a rubber hose.

Later, her mother told her: "I cannot take your side. If your father said you were in the wrong, I too have to say you were in the wrong. When you are bigger, you will value this."

Defending her mother's action, Rosmah said she had learnt from her that "when the husband scolds the children, the wife should not defend the children".

"This is because the children will feel there is someone else to defend them and do more wrongs," said Rosmah in the book.

The most cheerful and interesting part of the book, where you feel Rosmah lights up, is when she talks about her teenage years with her "Giddy gang" who constantly tried to break rules.

According to Rosmah, she was always trying to be fashionable – something she obviously carried on beyond her teenage years.

The old photographs in the book make the first 50 pages worth reading through, as one "oohs" and "aahs" over the black and white pictures of a very pretty young thing with a birth-mark mole on her cheek.

Her passion for netball is also much talked about. And there is an interesting photograph taken during her Universiti Malaya graduation ceremony that shows her together with her parents and a young boy in a blue suit standing next to her. I wonder who he was as the book described Rosmah as an only child.

The writers did little justice to Rosmah's twenties, as they only wrote about her career in Bank Pertanian. There must have been much more to the social life of a fashion-conscious career woman in her twenties like Rosmah.

The writers suddenly jumped to Rosmah's mid-thirties with her marriage to Najib. But there is only one photograph of the young Najib with Rosmah holding their two toddlers. I so wanted to see the photograph of the couple in their wedding garb, but like many others who bought the book, I was to be disappointed.

Then as the years take their toll, we see the Rosmah that we see now, with her flamboyant hairdo and her passion for the Datin-styled baju kurungs.

There are many photographs of her children. But one of the photographs is quite puzzling; either the publishers have captioned it wrongly or the writers appear to say that Rosmah has another daughter by the name of Azrene Soraya.

Then there are family photographs of the three children, Riza Shahriz, Nooryana Najwa and Nor Ashman, with Rosmah and Najib – the PM's family that we already know.

After that comes the much publicised part of the book – her denial of any involvement in the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Sharriibuu in 2006.

Claiming that she is afraid of lizards and the dark, Rosmah said she therefore is not capable of murder. Furthermore, she was at a breaking of fast function at the material time, and there is someone who can corroborate that – a Lt-Col Norhayati Hassan.

"How can I kill people when I would run away should a lizard drop in front of me. I also fear the dark. What more, to climb the hill where the murder allegedly took place. I have no strength to do that," said Rosmah.

In the book, Rosmah also defended the times she outshone her husband and insisted that she has the right to call herself the country's First Lady, in the same way the wives of the heads of some other countries are referred to.

Rosmah also said that she decided to defend herself against all the allegations made against her as she feels that keeping quiet is no longer the right thing to do.

"When I do not answer, there are more slanderous allegations against me. When I do not answer, they think I am afraid. I am not afraid, I can confront them," Rosmah was quoted as saying.

The rest of the book talks of her penchant for her programme for the gifted children, Permata and her other office duties.

All in all, the book started off as a biography and then got diverted midway as a book to court Rosmah as the prime minister's wife who does much for the betterment of the nation.

The only fault here is that the publisher made the courting part and the airbrushing of the photographs a tad too obvious. Otherwise, the book made an interesting read.

The book, priced at RM150, is published by Yayasan Amanah Perdana.