Biography / Autobiography

There’s something about comedian Tom Allen that has always fascinated me. The sharp suits and his voice make me wonder what his childhood was like and what his influences were. So much so that I have been desperate to read his autobiography since it came out, but yet I never once managed to find it in a charity shop. Anyone who frequents charity shops regularly will know that they nearly always have a pile of celebrity biographies and autobiographies to wade through, yet Tom Allen’s has never made its way to any of the ones I go in regularly. Having now received a copy of No Shame for Christmas I understand why – it’s really rather good!

Over the year I’ve heard several of Tom Allen’s stand up routines on TV and so a couple of the anecdotes in No Shame have been heard before, but there is still plenty more to laugh along with. Tom himself recognises that he won’t a conventional teenager at all, and he basically seems to be one of those people who was born in his mid-thirties. Much preferring to chat with his school friends’ mums about their interior decor or 80s style dinner parties that they were hosting over spending time with their kids.

Whilst looking back at himself and laughing in some cases, what also really comes out in Tom’s writing is the pain (and sometime confusion) he felt growing up and knowing that he didn’t necessarily fit in with everyone around him. He has a tenderness in his written word that really comes across and although you can still hear his comedic voice as he writes, there’s also a vulnerability that comes across and makes him incredibly endearing.

Still living with his parents you can see Tom’s desire to grow up, but at the same time his longing to stay somewhere so familiar and homely. It makes the knowledge that his next book (Too Much) being about what life was like following his father’s sudden death quite painful.

Much as in his stand up routines, there’s also a brilliant rhythm to Tom’s patter that, when matched with some of his eye for detail, makes you absolutely howl with laughter. He’s basically the kind of guy where you want to be on their dinner party invite list.

I hope to pick up a copy of Too Much soon, although having suddenly lost my Mother in Law over Christmas I think I may need to leave some time before doing so. When I am ready though I think I know that I’m unlikely to find a copy in a charity shop. It’s probably too good for that.

No Shame is available to buy online here. If you’re interested in what other biographies and autobiographies I’ve been reading lately then please take a look.

Disclaimer: Links in this post to Amazon are Affiliate links. If you buy something from Amazon it will cost you no more than if you went there under your own steam, but I will receive a small commission. All purchases are very much appreciated. Thank you.

The book No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy seemed to be on my radar for a while before a finally got round to picking up a copy in a local bookshop and reading it. These “memoirs of a working-class reader” had me somewhat intrigued. Hodkinson green up in Rochdale in a house with just one book. He’s remained in Rochdale, but now lives with some 3,500 books. I was intrigued to see how someone made that transition in the 70s and 80s. After all, that was a pre-internet time when nearly all information and education came from books, school or the media.

I was hoping for a bit of a bit of a reminisce, much as I had when reading Grace Dent’s Hungry, and to some extent I got that. But No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy isn’t just a memoir. Weaving through the story of Hodkinson’s childhood and the books he discovered on the way is the story of his grandfather’s dementia and subsequent decline. This is very poignant and obviously had a huge impact on him as he was growing up.

The book was all going fine, even if I was getting a bit frustrated from him going off topic quite a lot (there’s load about his musical aspirations for instance), until I got to page 232. At that point I’m afraid I got rather angry. So angry that I even folded over the corner of the page so I could go back to it and refer again. He’s talking about libraries – a subject I feel very strongly about. We also know that the number of people using libraries is decreasing and libraries have diversified somewhat to provide services that the local community want and need.

Whilst I agree that it would be preferable for funding not be to cut elsewhere so that libraries (and also schools) have to pick up for services that no longer exist, the bit that really got me annoyed was this bit: “Libraries were best when they were libraries, housed in austere buildings (echoey stone steps, polished brass, and plaques dedicated to long-dead aldermen). They formed an umbrella to the world, keeping out the noisy, the ill-mannered, the non-book people. The only sounds heard were whispers or, at worst, the clatter of coins fed into a photocopier. Libraries have tried to offer too much to too many. And surely it matters very much that visitors pick up a book, otherwise what is a library?”

The last part of this was in response to a librarian who had written in the Guardian about all the wonderful things libraries do and finished with “One day they might pick up a book. But, it doesn’t matter if they don’t. We don’t mind.”

Bearing in mind that this quote about keeping “non-book people” out of libraries is in the memoirs of a man who grew up in a house with only one book I would have laughed at the irony had it not made me so angry. Books are for everyone. Libraries (and everything in them) are for everyone. Libraries have changed and adapted as information, and the way it is accessed, has changed. They’ve evolved as our understanding about how children’s brains develop has. Rhyme time sessions for babies and toddlers are vital for the development of pathways in a child’s brain to help them access language later on. They are not just done to be a noisy annoyance for other library visitors.

I’m not going to lie. I stopped reading this book for about a week after page 232. I did pick it up and finish it in the end, but I still kept reflecting on what he had to say about libraries and it made me angry, and then later sad. If someone feels so passionate about books and learning that they write a book about their own literary journey, how can they miss the point so much about libraries? How can they not see how these wonderful places can help others develop themselves beyond what might have been expected for them based on their home life? I’m left assuming he’s never had Caitlin Moran pick him up on the topic!

Despite the interesting start and the nice bit of 70s/80s nostalgia I’m left unable to recommend No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy. But what I do recommend is that you all go and support your local library!

No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from Amazon through one of these links it will cost you no more than if you’d gone their under your own steam, but I will receive a small commission. Thank you for any purchases made. What would be even better though is if you went to your local library and borrowed books there. It’s free and you might also discover some other wonderful services they offer.

My love affair with Agatha Christie

When at university and studying for my finals, I lived in a flat above a charity shop. This charity shop was for some local animal charity and was the kind of place that sold things cheap. Very, very cheap. I still regularly use a pile of side plates that I picked up there for just 10p each, but the other thing they sold for just 10p was paperback books. In particular Agatha Christie books, which they always seemed to have a load of.

Living on my own at the time and spending pretty much every spare minute studying I struggled to fall asleep at night as my brain was just going at 100mph. My solution was to pick up an Agatha Christie book. The plots were gentle enough that I felt relaxed reading them, but at the same time they engaged my brain in trying to figure out who the murderer was so I stopped thinking about engineering formulae and complex mathematics instead. And so my Agatha Christie love affair started.

Finding my people

The classic age of detective fiction has always been one that I’ve loved and over the years I’m slowly working my way through many of the titles from the British Library Crime Classics series and picking those up secondhand where possible. During my many hours of driving kids I was on the look out for something new to listen to and earlier this year happened across the Shedunnit podcast on BBC Sounds. The first episode I listened to was entitled Agatha’s Archaeologists and as I listened along I realised two things. Firstly that I actually knew very little about Agatha Christie myself, and secondly that I had finally found “my people”. But I was left wondering how it had taken me so long to find them.

In the same week I took the kids to the local library and Lucy Worsley’s Biography of Agatha Christie caught my eye. I picked it up and started reading it there and then, and was instantly hooked. The fact that both these links with the golden age of crime fiction came so close together was a tad surprising, but also a very happy coincidence. Another coincidence is the fact that there is a actually a whole episode of the Shedunnit podcast with Lucy Worsley as a guest talking about her book. Also well worth a listen.

Agatha Christie – A very elusive woman

Back to Lucy Worsley’s book itself. Although it’s hard to separate the subject from the author as Worsley’s style of writing means that as I read it I could so clearly hear her voice telling me all about Agatha and her life. The writing style draws you in in exactly the same way that her numerous television programmes do. A voice of such passion and fact combined that it draws the reader (or viewer) along with her. Her enthusiasm for everything is just so contagious.

For me, just one read of this book isn’t enough. I need to go out and buy a copy and read it again whilst also re-reading all of Agatha Christie’s works in chronological order. I need now to read each book again and cross-refer to the point in her life when Agatha wrote it. To be able to see the influences of what was going on elsewhere, and also see how her characters develop over time, sometimes based on influential characters and experiences in her own life.

I also want to take a step back and imagine what Agatha’s life must have been like. I’m keen to visit her home in Devon (now owned by the National Trust), but also to go back to The Old Swan in Harrogate, the hotel where she was found after she famously went “missing’. Her travels round the world which provided inspiration for so many of her books also fascinate me.

Of course there’s absolutely nothing new in what I’m hoping to learn. Many others have done their own research on Agatha Christie’s life and works, and the Shedunnit podcast covers many of the topics in excellent detail, but Lucy Worsley’s book has given me a drive and enthusiasm to learn so much more for myself. If that’s not a sign of an excellent biography then I really don’t know what is.

A televisual delight too

And if re-reading the biography alongside all of Agatha Christie’s books, and catching up with the whole back catalogue of Shedunnit podcasts isn’t enough to keep me out of mischief there is also Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on The Mystery Queen on BBC iPlayer too. I fear my to do list might take a bit of a back seat in my life for a while.

Where to buy

Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie biography is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: All links to Amazon in this post are affiliate links. If you buy anything through these links it will cost you no more than if you’d arrived there on your own, but I will receive a small commission. Thank you for all purchases that are made through affiliate links. It is very much appreciated.

It is literally years since I received a book for Christmas and was able to actually read it between Christmas and New Year – although in this case I actually finished it a couple of days into 2022, making it my first finished read of the year.

Miriam Margolyes is one of those national institutions that pretty much everyone knows from something she’s done, but I don’t think many of us actually realise just how much she has packed into her lifetime. She’s told some wonderful tales on the Graham Norton show, I’ve seen her in documentaries about exploring Australia and tracing some of her roots in Scotland, and she’s also famous for breaking wind in an ad break on ITV’s This Morning, but that really is just scratching the surface.

Written in Miriam’s unique, straight to the point style, This Much is True gives a wonderful insight into her early life in London and Oxford before Miriam takes us to Cambridge with her where she feels her life gained much of the direction and shape it has since followed.

There is no doubt that Miriam Margolyes was destined to be a performer, but This Much is True really shows all the hard work that has gone in over the years to make her the household name that she is today. I knew she’s done a fair bit of theatre work before, but I had no idea about the amount of radio and voice-over work that filled her early working years. I’m also intrigued to see if I can find some of her appearances in old BBC radio dramas as delving into YouTube for some of the old adverts that she voiced is fascinating, especially as on some you simply wouldn’t recognise her voice at all. I hadn’t realised that she was Dolly one of the PG Tips chimps, or the Cadbury Caramel Bunny.

With Jewish parents, Miriam now describes herself as a non-religious Jew, but it’s very clear that the Jewish faith is a huge part of who she is, and as you read about her life you can see where it has influenced many of the decisions she’s taken in life. Reading this in parallel with watching the BBC’s excellent dramatisation Ridley Road has made me realise just how little I know about Judaism, and that’s something that I feel I need to rectify.

Anyone who is familiar with Miriam on TV chat shows or in print interviews will know that she is a woman who can shock, and it’s no surprise that her autobiography shocks some more, although nearly always in a way that makes you laugh too. She is downright crude in parts, and that may not be some people’s cup if tea, but that’s just part of who Miriam Margolyes is, and she’s very unapologetic about it.

This Much is True is quite simply one of the best autobiographies I’ve read in a long time, and sadly it makes Grace Dent’s Hungry look rather pedestrian in comparison. If you’ve ever chuckled along with Miriam when you’ve seen her interviewed then I definitely recommend you read it.

This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes is available to buy online here. At the time of writing (January 2022) it is only available in hardcover (or on Kindle), but if you have audible (or a free trial for audible) then you can listen to it for free as your book of the month, and as an added bonus you get Miriam herself reading it to you too.

Disclaimer: The above contains some affiliate links. It costs you no more than usual if you follow them and buy or download something, but I receive a small kick-back for which I am very grateful.

Nearly eight years ago I was lucky enough to hear Grace Dent speak at a Woman’s World of Whiskey event that I attended in London – back in the days when I used to get invited to blogger events, and before anyone had invented the term influencer. I’ll be honest and say that before I went I wasn’t really that fussed about hearing her speak. I’d seen her pop up in various places on TV, but had never been that impressed with her. How that changed when I heard her speak in person.

Nowadays, as well as being a respected and well-known restaurant critic, she is also all over TV and radio. I don’t really watch Masterchef, but do love catching her on a variety of Radio 4 programmes, and also am totally in love with her new Guardian podcast, Comfort Eating. The episode with Rosie Jones is particularly laugh out loud funny, but also need to come with a very large explicit content warning.

A recent visit to the local library with my youngest had me walk past the biography section and Hungry caught my attention from one of the displays. It made me realise that I actually knew very little about Grace Dent. I’d detected an obvious northern accent, but that really was about as far as it went.

Hungry fills in all the blanks nicely. Grace is just a few years older than me and so much of her childhood food habits were quite relatable, along with the stories of working towards her hostess badge at Brownies. Where I went though I don’t think we were posh enough to serve tea and cake, just biscuits!

What I wasn’t expecting was just how touching I would find Hungry. The parts of the book that cover her adult life feature her father’s dementia, and also her mother’s cancer. Both are written about so poignantly, with her also clearly explaining the very real pull between needing to be with family up north, but also having to balance that with work in London. Earlier in the book she writes about how her working class roots taught her never to turn down a job, as you simply never know if it might be the last one you’re offered. I’m not sure how exactly she does it (the sign of a great writer I guess) but you can really feel that tension between the family and work sides of her life in this difficult time.

Anyway – that’s me coming clean. Now a Grace Dent super fan. And I defy anyone to listen to her voice and not be swept away somewhat by the way in which she seems to purr somewhat when she speaks. Well, purrs until she cackles with laughter in a wonderful northern way!

Hungry by Grace Dent is available to buy online here.