'One of the funniest books I have ever read' HADLEY FREEMAN
âA masterpieceâ SATHNAM SANGHERA
'The read of the summer'
THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Brilliant ⌠funny and moving' ADAM KAY
A searingly honest, funny and moving family memoir in which David Baddiel exposes his motherâs idiosyncratic sex life, and his fatherâs dementia, to the same affectionate scrutiny.
On the surface, David Baddielâs childhood was fairly standard: a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in an ordinary house in Dollis Hill, north-west London. But David came to realise that his mother was in fact not ordinary at all. Having escaped extermination by fleeing Nazi Germany as a child, she was desperate to make her life count, which took the form of a passionate, decades-long affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman. Davidâs detailing of the affair â including a hilarious focus on how his mother turned their household over to golf memorabilia, and an eye-popping cache of her erotic writings â leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sarah Baddiel was a cross between Jack Niklaus and Erica Jong.
Meanwhile, as Baddiel investigates his familyâs past, his fatherâs memories are fading; dementia is making him moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity. As with his motherâs affair, there is both comedy and poignancy to be found: laughter is a constant presence, capable of transforming the darkest of experiences into something redemptive.
My Family: The Memoir is David Baddielâs candid examination of his childhood, family and memory offering a twisted love letter to his parents.
'An extraordinary, hilarious book'
OBSERVER
âI lost count of how many times I gaspedâ CAITLIN MORAN
'Outrageously funnyâŚprofoundly thoughtful' THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Explosively funny, brilliantly written' DAVID WALLIAMS
'Infernally funny' HOWARD JACOBSON
âA triumphâ NINA STIBBE
'Baddiel has done his parents proudâ
GUARDIAN
'Had me howling' PANDORA SYKES