Are You Dave Gorman? - Softcover

Wallace, Danny; Gorman, Dave

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091884713 ISBN 13: 9780091884710

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2002

Synopsis

'A magnificent tale of obsession and adventure' The Independent

After a heavy night of tequila, flatmates Dave and Danny set off on what turns out to be a 24,000-mile journey to meet all the other Dave Gormans in the world. They visit Scotland, Israel, America, France and Ireland. They even hold a party in London where 50 Dave Gormans attend, including two women who have kindly changed their name via deed-poll. Silly, but engrossing, fascinating and addictive - and a touching, funny story of two friends who grow to share a mutual obsession.

'A warm, funny, life-enhancing book' The Guardian

The average Dave Gorman is 37, 5'6" and works in the financial sector. Our Dave Gorman is 29, is a Perrier Award-nominated comedian and writer. His TV work has earned him two BAFTAs for The Mrs Merton Show as well as his own BBC2 series. Danny Wallace is a writer, producer and award-winning journalist, whose work has appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The Independent and Melody Maker.

About this title

Review

The award-winning Are You Dave Gorman? is the oddly touching story of how Perrier Award nominee Dave Gorman went in search of all the world's other Dave Gormans.

Fans of the TV version of this travelogue-cum-Arthurian-quest will know how it all began: one minute Dave and his flatmate Danny Wallace (himself a talented producer and writer) were kicking their heels in suburban London, the next they were on the night-train to Scotland to see assistant manager of East Fife Football Club David Gorman, so Dave Gorman could prove to Danny Wallace there were other Dave Gormans--and thereby win a drinker's bet. Such was the buzz Dave Gorman got from meeting Dave Gorman, he then went on a half year schlep around the world seeking out yet more Dave Gormans: in Ireland, Israel, Norway, America, with a sarcastically derisive Danny Wallace in constant and niggling attendance.

Things that work on TV--or start as drunken bets--don't always make the most successful of books and there are times when Are You Dave Gorman? seems a little contrived, not to say fatuously pointless. But such is the charm, candour, and wit of the two writers' alternating voices, any qualms come to seem churlish, if not thick-headed: it's the very frivolousness and absurdity of Are You Dave Gorman? that makes it so boyishly likeable. --Sean Thomas

Review

"A magnificent tale of obsession and adventure" (The Independent)

"Gorman is becoming the Bill Bryson of stand-up: charming, whimsical, adventurous and laced with belly laughs" (Sunday Times)

"You'll like this so much you may want to change your name to Dave Gorman" (The Big Issue)

"A warm, funny, life-enhancing book" (The Guardian)

"You'll like this so much you may want to change your name to Dave Gorman" (Big Issue)

About this edition

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0091884713
• ISBN 13: 9780091884710
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400