Spectacles: A Memoir - Hardcover

Perkins, Sue

4.02

9,014 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1405918543 ISBN 13: 9781405918541

Publisher: Michael Joseph, 2015

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Spectacles is the hilarious, creative and incredibly moving memoir from much loved comedian, writer and presenter Sue Perkins.

When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'Why is our house full of this shit?'

Sadly, a recycling 'incident' destroyed the bulk of this archive. This has meant two things: firstly, Dear Reader, you will never get to see countless drawings of wizards, read a poem about corn on the cob, or marvel at the kilos of brown flowers I so lovingly pressed as a child. Secondly, it's left me with no choice but to actually write this thing myself.

This, my first ever book, will answer questions such as 'Is Mary Berry real?', 'Is it true you wear a surgical truss?' and 'Is a non-spherically symmetric gravitational pull from outside the observable universe responsible for some of the observed motion of large objects such as galactic clusters in the universe?'

Most of this book is true. I have, of course, amplified my more positive characteristics in an effort to make you like me.

Thank you for reading.

Praise for Spectacles

'Drama, tears and laughs - Spectacles has got it all. A brilliant, touching memoir suffused with love, it reminds you that life is best lived at wonky angles. I ADORED it' Jessie Burton, bestselling author of The Miniaturist

'Very funny . . . It seems there are two Sue Perkins: the TV one, who gabbles and pratfalls, and the sensitive one who aches. The first of course, exists to protect the second. They can both write. The first writes comedy, the second tragedy; in this sense, reading her memoir is very like meeting her'
Sunday Times

'It's a proper book . . . so well written. Tight & bright & full of inspiration'
Chris Evans, Radio 2

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Drama, tears and laughs - Spectacles has got it all. A brilliant, touching memoir suffused with love, it reminds you that life is best lived at wonky angles. I ADORED it (Jessie Burton bestselling author of The Miniaturist)

Very funny . . . It seems there are two Sue Perkins: the TV one, who gabbles and pratfalls, and the sensitive one who aches. The first of course, exists to protect the second. They can both write. The first writes comedy, the second tragedy; in this sense, reading her memoir is very like meeting her (Sunday Times)

It's a proper book . . . so well written. Tight & bright & full of inspiration (Chris Evans Radio 2)

Utterly wonderful. It's very, very funny and poignant and it's very Sue Perkins and that's the bliss of it (Nina Stibbe, bestselling author of Love, Nina and Man at the Helm)

Relentlessly cheering, Spectacles is as charming and funny as Perkins herself. Like going for a long, slightly drunken lunch with your naughtiest friend (Red Magazine)

Brilliantly written... fearlessly honest and full of heart, it will also make you laugh like a gibbon (Heat *****)

I absolutely loved it . . . whip smart and very funny (Fanny Blake Woman & Home)

Life, love and loss - it's all here ... Warm, crisp and beautifully layered - like its author,Spectacles is a complete delight (Independent on Sunday)

[A] deftly written and belly-laugh funny autobiography . . . Though she never suggests she might be remotely brainy, she clearly is. Her vocabulary makes Will Self's seem lacking, her writing is full of discreetly clever allusions . . . If she wants her readers to like her, she certainly achieved it with this reviewer who laughed and cried and secretly wants her as a best friend (Elizabeth Fremantle Daily Express)

Sue's memoir will leave you feeling like you've made a new best friend. Introducing us to a cast of friends, family and love interests, and not forgetting a psychopathic nun, Sue picks apart life in a refreshingly honest, warm and downright hilarious way... Spectacles firmly cements her as an exciting writer of the future (OK Magazine)

From the Back Cover:

When I began writing this book, I went home to find what my mum might have kept of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'why is our house full of this shit?'

This, my first ever book, will answer questions such as 'Is Mary Berry real?', 'Is it true you wear a surgical truss?' 'Does orchestral conducting simply involve waving your arms around?' and 'is a non-spherically symmetric gravitational pull from outside the observable Universe responsible for some of the observed motion of large objects such as galactic clusters in the universe?

Most of this book is true. I have, of course, amplified my more positive characteristics in an effort to make you like me.

Thank you for reading.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.