Frida married fellow band member Benny

To an extent, he succeeds.

All four Abba stars were recording artists in their own right before that fateful day in 1970 when they got together for the first time.

Bj�rn had been performing with a folk band called The Hootenanny Singers while Benny was the "second cutest" member of The Hep Stars.

They first met when Benny's band were kicking up dust in their Ford Thunderbirds and Mustangs. Benny was driving - and he didn't have a licence.

Then they hooked up with the girls and started taking forest walks "with Bj�rn and Agnetha's bulldog Ada and Benny and Frida's soft-coated wheaten terrier Zappa." A bit too much information - but you get the gist.

However, once the relationships begins to cool, the author (clearly a massive Abba fan) becomes apologetic - glossing over the group's actions.

One week after Agnetha moved out of the matrimonial home, Bj�rn hooked up with the woman who became his second wife. "I was only a bachelor for a week," he says. Yes, but what was Agnetha's response?

"Mature brunettes and sinful blondes"?

Frida's reaction to Benny's new partner having a baby only a year after their split is not recorded either.

The author's ramblings about mature brunettes and sinful "ice maiden" blondes to justify the girls' varying appeal as sex symbols are also slightly odd.

Carl Magnus Palm is an Abba expert, but I wonder how many readers will want to know about the band's business dealings/music making and Sweden's social history to the extent to which it is covered in the 500-page book?

What is more, some of the band members' quotes have got lost in translation. "Just when you feel that you've reached the audience someone says cheers!," says Bj�rn of a lukewarm reception.

"You can only get away from there by boat and I usually crash into the bridge," says Agnetha of moving away from an island.

But I guess it is better to have too much information than too little - and die-hard Abba fans will get immense pleasure from this book.

Regular punters will enjoy it too - especially if they skim-read the more prosaic sections.

Criticisms aside, the Abba members are so intensely private that this is as good as it is going to get.

Carl Magnus Palm has got his lucrative foothold - and his sympathetic approach means it is less likely he will fall off his perch.

Bright Lights Dark Shadows, The Real Story of Abba by Carl Magnus Palm is published by Omnibus Press (�19.95)