Amy Winehouse widower publish photos of his wife during 2009 vacation

The beehive has gone and the black eyeliner has vanished too in fascinating new pictures of tragic singer Amy Winehouse.

She sports natural dark curls and her fresh-faced appearance shows that for a time, at least, she had found the perfect form of Rehab in the Caribbean.

Amy is pictured on St Lucia at the start of 2009 – after a horror year in which she had battled drink and drug addiction.

The jazz-pop singer is shown being buried in sand, riding a horse and posing in jeans and a bikini top.

She is tattooed and tanned. But above all, the Back To Black star looks relaxed and happy.

Amy was 24 and the photos were taken by US photographer Blake Wood, who she met through showbiz pal Kelly Osbourne.

The singer and Wood, then 22, were only ever good friends and he was dubbed “Good Blake”, while her jailbird husband Blake Fielder Civil – who she would divorce – was “Bad Blake”.

Wood and Amy became inseparable and pals say the photos are the result of a wonderful holiday.

Their closeness clearly allowed Amy to unwind and resulted in intimate images of the star which have now been made into a book containing 85 previously unseen pictures.

But the previous 12 months had been tumultuous for the London-based singer. It started well when she won five Grammys in February 2008.

It was a record haul for a British female artist.

Amy could not be in the US because of visa complications, but when legendary crooner Tony Bennett announced Rehab as record of the year – beating the likes of Beyonce, the Foo Fighters and Justin Timberlake – Amy was shown by satellite link-up to London staring and speechless at her astonishing achievement.

Things went downhill soon after as she battled addiction to alcohol, crack cocaine and heroin. Fans even booed her at both the V Festival and Bestival that summer.

As stress mounted, Amy invited Wood to St Lucia, where she was able to clean up her act – and he began to take photos.

Sadly, Amy would relapse and when she died in 2011 of alcohol poisoning, Wood found it too painful to even look at the images.

Finally, he feels the time is right to showcase a collection of 150 pictures – including the 85 unseen snaps.

Wood says: “A big reason I wanted to put this out there was to change the conversation about her. There’s a false idea it was all bad during those years and it really wasn’t – I was there.

“This book, really it’s a love letter to a friend. And it’s a visual diary of us at the time when she was most celebrated by the world, but she was also really misunderstood. She was very much loved by the people around her and I hope this comes through in my work.”

The snaps are in stark contrast to sad photos of Amy stumbling out of nightspots, drunk and dishevelled, barefoot and bleeding.

She and Wood spent many weeks on the island and playful Amy even had fun exercising on a trapeze.

Wood adds: “I had no interest in taking bad photos of her. Why take a photo of someone who’s struggling?”