Overview

*National Bestseller* ""This is a funny and beautiful book. What a little bastard."" --Russell Brand ""Every paragraph is like doing a shot with a friend. A double."" --Caitlin Moran Joel Golby's writing for Vice and The Guardian, with its wry observation and naked self-reflection, has brought him a wide and devoted following. Now, in his first book, he presents a blistering collection of new and newly expanded essays--including the achingly funny viral hit ""Things You Only Know When Both Your Parents Are Dead."" In these pages, he travels to Saudi Arabia, where he acts as a perplexed bystander at a camel pageant; offers a survival guide for the modern dinner party (i.e. how to tactfully escape at the first sign of an adult board game); and gets pitted head-to-head, again and again, with an unpredictable, unpitying subspecies of Londoner: the landlord. Through it all, he shows that no matter how cruel the misfortune, how absurd the circumstance, there's always the soft punch of a lesson tucked within. This is a book for anyone who overshares, overthinks, has ever felt lost or confused--and who wants to have a good laugh about it.

Full Product Details

9780525562771

Table of Contents

Reviews

*A BBC Best Book of 2019 So Far* Seeing the byline 'Joel Golby' means you're about to ungraciously snort with laughter in a public place. Golby is sharper at dissecting the madness of 21st century online existence than any other writer. Every paragraph is like doing a shot with a friend. A double. -Caitlin Moran, New York Times bestselling author of How to Be a Woman and How to Be Famous This is a funny and beautiful book. What a little bastard. -Russell Brand, New York Times bestselling author of My Booky Wook and Recovery Joel Golby is my favorite pop culture-obsessed nihilist...You'll laugh, cry and probably be a bit weirded out. -Sharon Horgan, co-creator of Catastrophe Using a blend of insightful self-deprecation and almost lovable braggadocio, Golby tackles subjects big and small with the same forensic thinking and enthusiasm... [He] is great at switching between the poignant and the absurd, observing life both with the wonder of a toddler who has just discovered where you hid the crayons and the confidence of the friend who tells you 'I got this' before attempting to fix your vacuum cleaner. -Adam Kay, The Guardian A writer who can be funny and offhandedly profound at the same time...[Golby] sometimes feels like a kindred spirit to David Sedaris, but younger and more biting. -Kirkus Reviews Golby, a British staff writer for Vice, moves between dark wit and even darker emotion, often in the course of a single sentence...Consistently entertaining. -Booklist With Golby we're treated to two things at once: the pleasure of his wit and style as he ranges his themes, and a sustained, near-Swiftian satire on the very real and material challenges driven by the United Kingdom's housing crisis...That Golby spins comedy gold from such a sorry state of affairs is testimony to how much we need a voice like his. -LA Review of Books A millennial's answer to David Sedaris. No writer is funnier than Joel Golby. -Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love

Joel Golby is my favorite pop culture-obsessed nihilist. If you like camel beauty pageants and robot sex as much as I do you'll love this. You'll laugh, cry and probably be a bit weirded out. --Sharon Horgan, co-creator of Catastrophe

Seeing the byline 'Joel Golby' means you're about to ungraciously snort with laughter in a public place. Golby is sharper at dissecting the madness of 21st century online existence than any other writer. Every paragraph is like doing a shot with a friend. A double. --Caitlin Moran, New York Times bestselling author of How to Be a Woman and How to Be Famous This is a funny and beautiful book. What a little bastard. --Russell Brand, New York Times bestselling author of My Booky Wook and Recovery Joel Golby is my favorite pop culture-obsessed nihilist...You'll laugh, cry and probably be a bit weirded out. --Sharon Horgan, co-creator of Catastrophe A writer who can be funny and offhandedly profound at the same time...[Golby] sometimes feels like a kindred spirit to David Sedaris, but younger and more biting. --Kirkus Reviews

Seeing the byline 'Joel Golby' means you're about to ungraciously snort with laughter in a public place. Golby is sharper at dissecting the madness of 21st century online existence than any other writer. Every paragraph is like doing a shot with a friend. A double. --Caitlin Moran, New York Times bestselling author of How to Be a Woman and How to Be Famous This is a funny and beautiful book. What a little bastard. --Russell Brand, New York Times bestselling author of My Booky Wook and Recovery Joel Golby is my favorite pop culture-obsessed nihilist...You'll laugh, cry and probably be a bit weirded out. --Sharon Horgan, co-creator of Catastrophe Using a blend of insightful self-deprecation and almost lovable braggadocio, Golby tackles subjects big and small with the same forensic thinking and enthusiasm... [He] is great at switching between the poignant and the absurd, observing life both with the wonder of a toddler who has just discovered where you hid the crayons and the confidence of the friend who tells you 'I got this' before attempting to fix your vacuum cleaner. --Adam Kay, The Guardian A writer who can be funny and offhandedly profound at the same time...[Golby] sometimes feels like a kindred spirit to David Sedaris, but younger and more biting. --Kirkus Reviews Golby, a British staff writer for Vice, moves between dark wit and even darker emotion, often in the course of a single sentence...Consistently entertaining. --Booklist With Golby we're treated to two things at once: the pleasure of his wit and style as he ranges his themes, and a sustained, near-Swiftian satire on the very real and material challenges driven by the United Kingdom's housing crisis...That Golby spins comedy gold from such a sorry state of affairs is testimony to how much we need a voice like his. --LA Review of Books A millennial's answer to David Sedaris. No writer is funnier than Joel Golby. --Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love

Author Information

Joel Golby is a staff writer for Vice, where he is among the site's most read contributors. He has written for The Guardian, Shortlist, and the BBC. He's more of a cat than a dog man, but he see merits in both. He lives in London.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available