Overview

A searingly honest, funny and moving family memoir in which David Baddiel exposes his mother’s idiosyncratic sex life, and his father’s dementia, to the same affectionate scrutiny On the surface, David Baddiel’s 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. David’s detailing of the affair – including a hilarious focus on how his mother turned their household over to golf memorabilia, and an eye-popping cache of her erotic writings – leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sarah Baddiel was a cross between Jack Niklaus and Erica Jong. Meanwhile, as Baddiel investigates his family’s past, his father’s memories are fading; dementia is making him moodier and more disinhibited, with an even greater penchant for obscenity. As with his mother’s 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 Baddiel’s candid examination of his childhood, family and memory offering a twisted love letter to his parents.

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9780008487607

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Reviews

Praise for My Family: Not the Sitcom (the stage show) ‘Rivetingly revealing’ Michael Billington, Guardian ‘Witty and profound’ Evening Standard ‘Wonderfully warm yet brutally frank, fearless yet very funny’ London Theatre Praise for Jews Don’t Count ‘From his first sentence, the energy, force and conviction of Baddiel’s writing and thinking will transfix you…as readable as an airport thriller…a masterpiece’ Stephen Fry ‘I don’t think I have ever been so grateful to anyone for writing a book … incisive, urgent, surprisingly funny and short. It’s also a beautiful piece of publishing. It needs to be read’ Jay Rayner ‘It is so gripping – I read it in a single sitting’ Stephen Bush, The Times ‘I only big up work I really believe is good and this is extraordinarily good. And important’ Jonathan Ross ‘A fascinating book, I urge you to read it’ Piers Morgan

Author Information

David Baddiel was born in 1964 in Troy, New York, but grew up and lives in London. He is a comedian, television writer, columnist and author. His children's books have sold more than a million copies in the UK alone, and his debut, The Parent Agency, won the Laugh Out Loud Book Award. David lives in London with his family.

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