This Is Your Life - Softcover

O'Farrell, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552998494 ISBN 13: 9780552998499

Publisher: Black Swan, 2003

Synopsis

It's a big night at the London Palladium. As Jimmy Conway steps out blinking into the spotlights live on national television, he can't help wondering whether he should have perhaps shared his little secret with someone by now. Jimmy has never done any performing of any sort ever before...

Just as 'bogus doctors' are occasionally discovered working in hospitals, Jimmy Conway has become a 'bogus celebrity'; winning an award for something he never did, being photographed in Hello! in someone else's house, and ultimately making a fool of the entire mad and shallow celebrity merry-go-round.

About this title

About the Author

John O'Farrell's first book Things Can Only Get Better about his years spent helping the Labour Party lose elections at every level was a number one best-seller. Two decades later he published the sequel Things Can Only Get Worse. In between his two comic memoirs, he published five novels, including The Best A Man Can Get, May Contain Nuts and The Man Who Forgot His Wife; two funny history books (An Utterly Impartial History of Britain and its sequel) plus three collections of his satirical columns from The Guardian.

His books have been translated into over thirty languages and adapted for TV and radio. Formerly a comedy scriptwriter for shows such as Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You, he more recently co-wrote the movie Chicken Run 2, the Broadway musicals Something Rotten! and Mrs Doubtfire and the forthcoming Just For One Day - The Story of Live Aid, which opens at the Old Vic in 2024.

From the Back Cover

Jimmy Conway always wanted to be famous. As a teenager he even stashed away a series of letters advising his future self on how to handle the fame and fortune coming his way. And so when he's reunited with these rather embarrassing predictions in his mid-thirties he can't help feeling he must be a bit of a disappointment to himself.

Thus begins an extraordinary journey into the world of celebrity. Jimmy bluffs and stumbles all the way to the very top until he finds himself about to perform stand-up comedy in front of a packed theatre and a live television audience of millions. There's only one problem, he's never performed anything before - ever.

With his second novel, John O'Farrell has written a compelling, funny and acutely observed satire on our shallow celebrity-obsessed culture in the vain hope that he might get to go on telly occasionally.

Edition details

• Publisher: Black Swan
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0552998494
• ISBN 13: 9780552998499
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368